Wizards & Avalonians II: Lost Relatives
by Pyeknu
Summary: Side story to "Phoenix From the Ashes," sequel to "W&A I." With Harry's lovers given their magic back, the MoM focuses on the matter of Bellatrix Lestrange and a certain horcrux in her family vault. Barred by treaty to get at Hufflepuff's Cup, Harry and his allies move to circumvent it by bringing the mages of Meridiana — including Bella's daughter Cassiopeia — back into the fold.
1. The Treaty of Ynys Môn

_Level Nine of the Headquarters of Her Majesty's Ministry of Magic of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (located under Northumberland Avenue east of Trafalgar Square) in the City of Westminster, London, Tuesday 18 June 1996, after supper… _

_"This is it…it's through here…" _

_"Harry!" _

_Harry Potter paused on hearing his best female friend call out, and then he gazed on her. "What is it, Hermione?" he asked before noting the shocked look on her face. He then turned to gaze where she and the others who had come with them from Hogwarts — Ron and Ginny Weasley, Neville Longbottom and Luna Lovegood — were now staring at. _

_One look made the Boy-Who-Lived blink in curiosity. _

_"Hello, Big Brother." _

_Silence. _

_More silence. _

_Still more silence. _

_And then… _

_"'_**Big Brother?!**_'" all of Harry's friends chorused as they stared at the leader of their party, and then they turned back to look at the woman who had spoken those words. _

_Said woman was about Harry's age, with rusty red hair that reminded the Boy-Who-Lived of the many pictures of his mother in the photo album Rubeus Hagrid had given him years before. Her eyes were the same vibrant green as Harry's…and even more, she wore reading glasses over her eyes. She was dressed in what appeared to be a white-and-red robe-type uniform of Oriental design; Harry remembered seeing pictures of some sort of priestess who worked in a temple in Japan in a library book he read once while he had attended primary school. There was no sign of a wand anywhere on her. _

_Before Harry could demand to know what was going on, said girl then turned and walked quickly towards him, her lacquered wood sandals clattering loudly on the hard stone of the floor of the Hall of Prophecy. Her smile grew ever so bigger as she approached Harry…and then, before anyone could say a word, she flung her arms around him and swamped him with a hug that matched that of any motherly embrace Molly Weasley ever gave him. A second later, a powerful aura of magic enveloped them both for a moment, that making Harry's companions from Hogwarts back away a bit…as Luna's silver-blue eyes went very wide in shocked disbelief. "Oh, my…Helga's Curse…" _

_The Weasley siblings and Neville turned to stare wide-eyed at their Ravenclaw friend. "Luna…that's just a LEGEND!" Ginny hissed out. _

_"It is no story, Ginevra-san." _

_Everyone perked on hearing that cold voice with its lilting accent, and then they turned as a woman dressed like the girl now hugging Harry — Ginny and Hermione were quick to note he was now hugging her back, their eyes filling with tears — appeared, though the newcomer was much older and clearly Oriental by descent. The one odd thing about this woman was her eyes: They were twin pools of pure black, even in the sclera around the barely-noticeable pupils and irises. She appeared to be a woman in her early thirties. On seeing her up close, Ron, Ginny and Neville paled in mortal terror as they took fearful steps away from the newcomer. Luna, however, had bowed her head politely. "Good evening, Tsukuyomi-sama," she said, using the Japanese honorifics even if she spoke English. She then gazed on the girl hugging Harry. "Is she really Harry's sister?" _

_"Yes, she is, Luna-chan," the woman born over a century before as Yomigawa Tsukiko — known more commonly by her style name "Tsukuyomi-no-Tsukushi" in the Orient and the "Dark Lady Tsukuyomi" or the "Dark Lady of the Orient" in Europe — answered as she smiled in amusement at the daughter of the owner of the_ Quibbler_; they had met five years before when Xenophilius Lovegood went to Japan to do a forty-fifth anniversary interview with the woman who almost destroyed the old International Confederation of Wizards by herself and helped usher in the International Conference of Magical Communities as the world-wide meeting house for Terran magicals. "Saved — as you just surmised — by the curse Helga Hufflepuff put on the land long ago to preserve the spirits of unborn children whose parents were killed (such as Rose-chan's mother) or permanently incapacitated (as Neville-kun's parents were)…then restored to life by means even_ **I** _find hard to understand." She gazed on Harry as he turned to look at her. "For that, do forgive me, Harry-kun. By the time I realized Rose-chan's connection to your parents — and thus, to you — I had taken her on as my apprentice. Given your oh-so-delightful problems with Tom Riddle, I felt it was wise to allow Rose-chan the chance to train in peace and not deal with the staleblood fools who would gladly destroy all that your parents sacrificed themselves to try to save years ago." _

_Harry nodded. "I know…Rose just told me everything…" _

_Hermione gaped. "How?" _

_"It's called 'telepathy,' Hermione-san," Tsukiko explained. _

_The normal-born from Sussex blinked. "Don't you mean Legilimency?" _

_A tired, annoyed sigh escaped the older woman. "_Europeans_…!" the legendary freedom fighter hissed out in disgust, which made the Weasley siblings and Neville wince…though Luna clearly was not bothered by the vile tone in Tsukiko's voice. "Always looking for stupid ways to make simple things convoluted and unnecessarily difficult…" _

_As Hermione gazed in curiosity at the older woman, Rose then pulled away from Harry as she looked at him; both were about the same height, so she didn't have to look up at him. They stared into the other sibling's deep green orbs for a moment, and then they both giggled. That soon turned into warm laughter as they embraced each other again. As Luna sniffed back her tears at this wonderful moment — while it did strike her as wrong that Harry had __**not**__ been told about his once-lost sister, she could understand the Lady Tsukuyomi's reasoning given the considerable interest many people in Britain had in the Boy-Who-Lived…especially when it came to one pesky Dark Lord and his silly followers — the others exchanged concerned looks before Hermione took a deep breath. "Um…much that I'm happy that Harry now has true family with him, we did come here to locate Sirius Black and make sure You-Know-Who hasn't hurt him…" _

_"Sirius-dono is not here at this time, Hermione-san," Tsukiko stated. "No doubt thanks to Severus-dono's rather improper training methods when it came to defending one's mind from intrusion, Voldemort tricked Harry-kun into coming here." _

_Hermione gasped as her eyes went wide. "Something in Row Ninety-seven…" _

_"Well, let's go find Row Ninety-seven," Tsukiko then bade with a nod of her head. _

_She, Harry and Rose — the younger Potter sibling having wrapped an arm around her brother's — walked towards the door to the Hall. Reaching the end of the row to their left, they looked to see a placard with the number __**53**__ there. A glance to their right showed the next tall shelf full of orbs to be marked with __**52**__. "This way!" Harry said as he pointed away from Row 52, then he jogged off, holding Rose's hand. _

_As the others went after them, Tsukiko paused as well-honed magical and ki senses picked up on a small group of people having just entered the Department of Mysteries. Quickly noting the warped protean charm on their left lower arms that indicated each was branded with the Dark Mark, the Dark Lady of the Orient could only smirk._

Let the games begin…and Britain finally fall_, she mused to herself…_

* * *

_**Wizards and Avalonians II:  
Lost Relatives**_  
by Fred Herriot  
A side story to _Phoenix From the Ashes_

Proofreading done by Rose1948, Rashaan Butler and Rorschach's Blot

Based on _Harry Potter_, created by Joanna K. Rowling; _Ikkitōsen_, created by Shiozaki Yūji; and _Urusei Yatsura_, created by Takahashi Rumiko.

Including characters and references from _Mahō Sensei Negima_, created by Akamatsu Ken; _Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter_, written by Seth Grahame-Smith; and _Highlander_, created by Gregory Widen.

_Phoenix From the Ashes_ was derived from the fanfic _The Bet: Crippled_, written by Gregg Sharp. This story also contains characters and situations from the fanfic series _Urusei Yatsura - The Senior Year_, created by Mike Smith and Fred Herriot; and the _Icemaidens_ series, created by Fred Herriot.

* * *

**WRITER'S INTRODUCTION**

_This story is set after the events in the first _Wizards and Avalonians_ story, _The Man-Who-Won and the Ladies from Avalon_. The flashbacks, of course, depict a variation of the events of the Battle of the Department of Mysteries and its aftermath, as shown in_ Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

* * *

Crawley in West Sussex (three kilometres south of London Gatwick Airport), a hidden home in Cophall Wood off Charlwood Road, Tuesday 13 July 2010, just after dawn…

It was the smell of English breakfast tea that woke Hermione Granger up.

Groaning, the normal-born Special Adviser on Normal Affairs to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement groaned as she pulled herself up from her bed, stretching herself for a moment before standing up. A soft _pop!_ then heralded the arrival of a very beautiful raven-haired house elf dressed properly in the uniform of a maid serving the Noble House of Carter of Ifield. "Good morning, Miss 'Mione," Tappy said with a curtsey to her mistress. "Breakfast is being prepared at this time."

"Thanks, Tappy," Hermione said as she plodded off to the bathroom.

As she took a chance to take a long and invigorating shower, the normal-born of the Golden Trio of Hogwarts could only smile as she allowed the hot water to wake her up. Despite the many problems rebuilding wizarding society in Britain had presented to Harry Potter and his classmates after they graduated from Hogwarts in 1998, the lives of those who had been at the forefront of one of the greatest social revolutions in magical history had not suffered any problems. That came mostly thanks to the unspoken alliance Harry forged with the goblins of Gringotts, punctuated by the Boy-Who-Lived's return of the Sword of Gryffindor to Chief Director Ragnok in a public ceremony on the steps of the Diagon Alley branch of the international mercantile bank just after sixth year ended in 1997. That symbolic act of acknowledging goblin law and tradition when it came to objects their smiths had created had won the instant support of Gringotts…even if the pureblood traditionalists — including those who did not support Voldemort at the time — had howled in outrage at the turning over of a Founder's Artifact to the goblins. Still, doing that had ensured the Second Purification War would end quite quickly and without interference from Gringotts; in a private conversation some years later, Harry's estate manager Griphook confessed to Hermione that if he had been close to the Sword, he would have stolen it back by whatever means possible as a way of delivering a public slap to the face of all those wizards who had spat on and sneered at goblin beliefs over the centuries.

_There, but with the grace of God, go I_, Hermione mused as she shampooed her hair. Because of the alliance with the goblins, Harry and his friends had been able to cash in big time with their family fortunes after the war with Voldemort was done. Unlike the Ministry of Magic — until yesterday — because of the Defunct Lords Act of 1957 that forbade the normal-born descendants of Wizengamot lords from claiming their seats in the legislative body of Her Majesty's magical government, Gringotts was willing to ensure people like Hermione Granger — styled _The Right Honourable The Baroness Hermione of Ifield_ in the normal world — could claim what was rightfully theirs. And while the Carter fortune was quite small in comparison to the joint Potter/Black fortune that Harry had inherited, it was still impressive. And growing bigger thanks to Griphook's keen nose for new economic opportunities. "_Invest smartly, Master of My Vaults_," Hermione ritually declared when she had been formally given control of her maternal family vaults in 1997. "_I trust you to do what is necessary to shower us with gold._"

And speaking of which…

"Your Ladyship?! Are you there?!"

"Just a moment!" Hermione called out before stepping out of the shower and using some wandless magic to dry herself off before slipping on her bathrobe.

Walking into the living room a moment later, she bowed politely to Griphook; her vault manager had her permission to walk into her home at any time she was here. "Master of My Vaults, may you defeat all before you and be showered with gold."

Griphook bowed his head in return. "Your Ladyship, may your magic be strong so you can strike down all your enemies," he returned to her ritually before he smirked, showing his pointed teeth. "A little early for you, Hermione?" he asked with a wink.

She laughed as she waved him to a chair. "Not really, Griphook. So how was the reaction to yesterday's vote?"

He cackled as she sat down across from him. Tappy then popped in with a cup of goblin tea, a spicy and nearly-poisonous concoction that was a morning delicacy to people like Griphook. As he smiled his thanks at the common courtesy shown to him by Hermione's elf, the normal-born special adviser could only shake his head before she nodded thanks as her elf handed her a cup of breakfast tea. _Amazing what simple acts of respect can do for people_, she mused to herself. _Tsukiko-sensei was right all along. If wizards and witches in Europe would have stopped being so 'primate-centric' and 'blood-centric' all those years ago, dark lords would be just characters in novels like the ones that moron Lockhart tried to pass off for defence books in second year!_

"It gave all the directors quite a good laugh at their afternoon meeting," Griphook stated. "No questionable actions by any of Mister Malfoy's friends…" — he sneered on saying that name; unlike people such as Hermione and Harry, Griphook NEVER addressed the leaders of "dark" families like the Malfoys of Cumbria by the title "Lord" or its several normal cognates — "…that we took note of. Unofficially, of course," he added with another wink, which made Hermione laugh. Gringotts was quite strict when it came to privacy issues. Though he was technically breaking the various clauses of several goblin-wizard treaties by telling Hermione about what her enemies might say within Gringotts' walls, given the standard "staleblood" attitudes when it came to goblins, the people whose parents fought for Voldemort were always treated with the barest level of common courtesy. "There is one small problem, though."

"Bellatrix Lestrange."

He nodded. "While she hasn't come to Gringotts, she still has access to her family vault. And the Cup of Helga Hufflepuff." A smirk then crossed his face. "Pity the late Master Riddle never fully realized what he was potentially creating when he sought to remain forever immortal."

"Not even the immortals who fight in the Game are truly immortal; chop off the head and it's all over. Nor are people like _Freiherr_ von Taserich…as Master Hosan demonstrated when he allowed himself to die so that Major General Raeburn could succeed him as Grandmaster of his martial arts school," she noted before sipping her tea. "Lucky thing Tsukiko-sensei taught Harry how to use a soulsword to sever the links between Riddle and his horcruxi." A smirk crossed her face. "If that wasn't done, the Cup would have given Riddle yet another chance to come back…"

He nodded. "Which no one wants." A sigh then escaped him. "Still…"

"Cassiopeia?"

Another nod from the goblin banker. "Yes. By our laws, the Lady Cassiopeia would be the proper Viscountess of Barnet given her father's death at the Battle of Hogwarts. Her Avalonian body was created by the late Master Steven Holmes from the DNA of Lady Bellatrix and her husband, thus making her the blood-heir even if she was born by means which would not be considered proper by wizarding law. However, with the Magical Royal Proclamation concerning the Avalonians coming into play, there's simply nothing the Wizengamot can do to deny the Lady Cassiopeia her basic rights if questions about that ever came up. Furthermore, she was given both life and magic thanks to the Curse of Helga Hufflepuff — which is what ultimately saved her soul when she was still-born after her mother was imprisoned in Azkaban in 1981 — so she is magical and would inherit under the traditional laws of inheritance. And while the removal of the Defunct Lords Act did give her a better chance of taking up her family seat in the Wizengamot…"

"She's a graduate of Meridiana. The Treaty of Ynys Môn — and all the laws that stem from that treaty between Hogwarts and Meridiana — get in the way. With it there, she can't lay any sort of legal claim to anything owned by her parents. Which includes the contents of whatever is in the Lestrange family vault; if you tried to defy that, it's a clear violation of the Treaty of 1779 between the Ministry and Gringotts."

"As is true for all the others that wonderful fellow helped restore to life in the 1980s," he finished. "A pity he passed away forgetting his true origins."

"Well, according to Ambassador Holmes, her adopted father always saw himself more as Terran and English than Niphentaxian and whatever 'church' he was a part of before he was assigned to be an observer on Earth in the 1970s," she mused. "At least that Noukiite priest that was with the Imperial Marine battalion that came to Britain in February to clear out whatever other Niphentaxians were in the country properly blessed his grave."

He nodded. "A noble race, the Noukiites are. The Xiàolíng did us all great favours by cultivating such allies after she was given her life back at the fulfilment of the Promise of Bunka Go-nen." He then smirked. "Then again, given her brother's prowess in bed and his relationship with that one warrior who visited Tomobiki…"

"She Who Speaks to Dragons," she noted. "Don't recall her proper name, though. Luna would know." A smirk crossed her face…and then Hermione hummed as something came to her. "Griphook…"

"We also are concerned about a possible attack on the Xiàolíng and her family," Griphook affirmed with a nod. "Much that such would be suicidal given the Earth Angel's presence, Mister Malfoy and his friends may become that desperate…"

She nodded. "Which means…"

A shark-like grin crossed his face. "Indeed."

Both gazed at each other, and then they returned to their tea…

* * *

Level One of the Headquarters of Her Majesty's Ministry of Magic of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, an hour later…

"Good morning, everyone!"

Kingsley Shacklebolt and Percy Weasley perked on hearing that very cheerful voice, and then they turned to watch as Hermione walked in, a smile on her face. On seeing that grin, both the Minister and the Senior Undersecretary winced. It was _that_ smile, the one that indicated that the female member of the Golden Trio was planning something that would cause a lot of headaches…even if it was ultimately for a good cause.

Also present in the office at the time were several other department heads and senior subordinates. Chief Unspeakable Ian Boot — Terry Boot's father — was there from the Department of Mysteries, accompanied by Chief of Research Planning Daphne Greengrass. Director Lì Xīshèn — Lì Sǔ's father — was there for the Department of International Magical Cooperation. He was accompanied by the British Ambassador to the International Conference of Magical Communities — and Neville's paternal grandmother — the Dowager Lady Augusta Longbottom of Holdenhurst. And from the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, there were Harry Potter and Arthur Weasley, accompanied by Chief Auror Elaine Savage and Chief of Magical Secrecy Control Arnold Peasegood.

"'Morning," the others called back.

Except Harry.

He was asleep.

Hermione paused as she gazed on her best friend, and then she looked at Arthur. The chief of the Department of Non-Magical Artifact Abuse chuckled. "I'm afraid that his wives and his consort are simply tiring the poor man out, Hermione."

Her cheeks then reddened. "Oh…!"

"I never realized Avalonians could be so energetic when it comes to affairs of the bedroom," Sǔ's father mused as others laughed. Lì Xīshèn was the son of a Chinese magical who fled the mainland to Hong Kong in the wake of the rise of the People's Republic in 1949, then moved to Britain afterwards. He was the first wizard of Chinese descent to graduate from Hogwarts, having passed his NEWTs with flying colours in 1970 from Ravenclaw. Joining the DIMC right afterwards, he — thanks to pureblood prejudices against "foreign-born" wizards working for the Ministry of Magic, especially if they were Orientals — would not be confirmed as its director until six years ago, in the last round of votes Harry had been able to participate in before his promotion to the head of the DMLE. "Curious that Mandy, Pansy and Dora have not formed a bond-mating."

"From what I understand about the _marei'cha_ process, it's similar — though a lot more flexible — than what happens when people become soul-bonded. Ginny's bonding to her new wife shows that pretty well," Daphne then mused. "Even if Mandy, Pansy and Dora do see Harry as their future _surei'cha_ by Sagussan cultural standards, there might be feelings of competition between them when it concerns him. Traditionally in Sagussan society, _marei'cha_ always must agree to all things when it comes to seeking out a _surei'cha_ to co-parent future children." She then gazed sympathetically at the sleeping Harry. "I only just hope that Harry will survive the ordeal."

"What if I told you, Daph, I have a potential solution to the problem?"

Eyes locked on Hermione. "Oh, Merlin! What have you got in mind now?" Kingsley asked.

_That_ smile came back. "Renegotiate the Treaty of Ynys Môn."

Silence.

More silence.

Still more silence.

And then…

"Merlin, Hermione! You don't do things by half, do you?!" Ian demanded.

"Listen to you, Mister 'I Married a Weretiger!'" Arthur then teased.

Laughter filled the room as Ian blushed. Terry's father was a peer of the Marauders, Lily Evans and Severus Snape; he graduated as a Ravenclaw with top NEWTs in 1978 and was sucked into the Unspeakables afterwards. A half-year later, he was saved from a roving pack of werewolves led by Fenrir Greyback by Michelle Peakes, a normal woman who had been cursed to be a weretiger when she was a child in India while her parents were serving as missionaries. Given Michelle's frightful strength when transformed — and given that she had taken the weretiger version of the Wolfsbane potion that night; such had been created by Padma and Parvati Patil's mother Aditi years before the family had migrated to Britain — she killed most of Fenrir's pack and saved Ian's life. The young Unspeakable — who had pretty much been a fence-sitter concerning the First Purification War until that moment — swore a magical Life Debt to Michelle and they married shortly afterwards. It was thanks to Ian that the Patils were able to be accepted in mainstream British society; it was Padma's and Parvati's father Adakitta who had financed Damocles Belby's development of Wolfsbane potion for werewolves some years later.

"Why renegotiate that treaty, Hermione?" Kingsley asked.

She smirked. "You know about Rose Potter, don't you?"

A chuckle escaped the minister. "'Mione…Percy, Arthur and I were _there_, remember?!"

More laughter filled the room…

* * *

_Level Nine of the Headquarters of Her Majesty's Ministry of Magic, Tuesday 18 June 1996, after supper… _

_"Very good, Potter. Now turn around, nice and slowly, and give that to me." _

_Harry and Rose blinked in confusion, and then they turned to look. _

_"Good evening, minna-dono," Yomigawa Tsukiko then greeted with her normal cold voice. _

_Gargled breaths and croaks of mind-numbing horror escaped the crew of fourteen Death Eaters currently standing about three metres away from the visiting students from Hogwarts, the Dark Lady of the Orient and her current apprentice. As Harry's friends looked, they would be able to swear on their magic that those they could see like Lucius Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange were now as white as ghosts on realizing their mission to the Ministry of Magic had just taken a potential turn for the worse. _

_Even if their leader was rated a "dark lord" — thus was a spiritual equal to Yomigawa Tsukiko — the causes she and Tom Riddle fought for were worlds apart. Voldemort wanted the purebloods to rule supreme over all magicals in Britain…and eventually, the whole world. Tsukuyomi had fought for — and, with the help of the Americans, succeeded in — the total destruction of European wand wizarding hegemony over magical practices worldwide. Thus, in effect — to people such as Lucius and Bellatrix — this nigh-ageless Japanese woman was Albus Dumbledore taken to the worst extreme possible. _

_Still, it could be salvaged… _

_Lucius bowed immediately to the elderly Japanese witch. "Lady Tsukuyomi. On behalf of our liege lord, Lord Voldemort, I welcome you to the United Kingdom." _

_An amused smile crossed her face. "Lucius-dono, you are as courteous as always." The smile then faded as she coldly added, "Especially when you confront_ true _strength. Witness this well, young ones," she then bade Harry and his companions. "Were I not here, this staleblood inbred fool would be in his full arrogance, knowing his master's plan to trap you within this hall had succeeded and that he could obtain the prophecy orb now in Harry-kun's hands." _

_Luna smiled as she noted the Death Eaters quaking in anger at being called "stalebloods" and "inbred." "Yet, with your presence, Tsukuyomi-sama, they know that if they do anything that displeases you, you could literally kill them with but a_ **thought**_!" _

_"Quite correct, Luna-chan," Tsukiko said as she smiled in delight at the daughter of the owner of the_ Quibbler_. "Now, is it because of this prophecy orb that you risk the wrath of your ministry by coming here this evening?" she asked Lucius. _

_A shaky nod was made in answer to that question. "Yes, My Lady. That prophecy is something my master desires." _

_Tsukiko hummed. "I see." She gazed on Harry. "Have you heard this, Harry-kun?" _

_The Boy-Who-Lived shook his head. "No, Sensei. This is the_ first _I've heard about this." _

_Ron, Ginny and Neville all gasped; if Harry was calling this woman "sensei," it could lead to a disaster for the whole of wizarding Britain. All Tsukiko had to do was offer an apprenticeship to be tutored by her to Harry Potter…and the Boy-Who-Lived could walk out of Hogwarts once and for all time; despite European attitudes towards the Dark Lady of the Orient, she was the first person to be rated_ Magistra Maximus _by ICMC standards and was known to be a stern but thorough teacher of magic. To become her apprentice would give Harry a chance to do anything in almost any country on Earth._

That _would be the ultimate slap in the face to wand magicals in Britain…though deep in his heart, Neville realized Harry had more than enough reasons to simply walk away from it all given how the Ministry and the press had treated him since the whole Chamber of Secrets debacle in their second year. And that didn't begin to mention the fact that Harry now had a_ sister_ — one saved by an ancient magical curse that, according to legend, had been created by Helga Hufflepuff to protect the souls of unborn children whose parents were killed by dark magicals; as to HOW Rose Potter had been given new life, Neville just couldn't begin to guess! — that was now the Lady Tsukuyomi's current apprentice. _

_"I see," Tsukiko trilled out before she shook her head. "Albus, you _**idiot**_…!" As the Death Eaters gaped in shock at her, she then held up her hands in a __**Why me?**__ gesture. "So blinded by your own hubris and public image…you _**fool**_…!" She then sighed. "Rose," she bade her apprentice. "Show your brother the prophecy." _

_Rose nodded. "Hai, Sensei!" She then held her hands up as if she was surrendering before she moved to cross her lower arms in an "X" formation before whispering, "_Eien no Ai Ani-sama…_" _

_"Oh, Merlin, no…!" _

_"_Mater Scientia, Minerva! Ad Se Me Alliciat…_" _

_"What?!" Lucius demanded as he glared at Rodolphus Lestrange. _

_"_REVELIO PROPHETIA!_" _

_"_**SHE'S BEEN TRAINED AT ****_MERIDIANA_****…!**_" Bellatrix's husband cried out… _

_…before a gigantic burst of pure magical power exploded from Rose's body to encompass both her and Harry in a ball of pure white light. _

_"_**HARRY!**_" Hermione screamed out as everyone save Tsukiko ducked away from that blinding explosion of raw magical power, squeezing their eyes shut… _

_…and then the light faded. _

_Silence then fell as people gazed in the direction of the Potter siblings. "What happened…?" Neville then demanded. "Harry…?" _

_"_The bindings are gone…_" _

_Eyes locked on Luna, who had a lost look on her face. "Luna!" Ginny gasped. _

_"Oh, Merlin! She's a Seer!" Rodolphus' brother Rabastan croaked out. _

_People quickly silenced themselves as the young Ravenclaw mumbled, "_Innocence is forever lost…truth is now known…the Chosen One is loyal no more…the Curse of Hufflepuff saved them all…the Children of the Two Phoenixes come…_" And with that, Luna then jolted before a confused look crossed her face. "Hello! Oh, my! What are we doing in the Hall of Prophecy?" she then asked. _

_Ginny and Ron moaned…before they tensed on hearing Harry clear his throat. As they turned to watch, the Boy-Who-Lived walked over to hold out the prophecy orb to Lucius Malfoy. "Please convey this to Lord Voldemort with my compliments." _

_Everyone from Hogwarts save Luna gaped in shock. "_**HARRY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!**_" Ron screamed out. "_**YOU'RE ACTUALLY GIVING YOU-KNOW-WHO THE PROPHE-…UURRRK!**_" _

_THAT came from the incensed look on Harry's face as he glared at his best friend. "Ron, you're a genius at chess and quidditch…but there are times that you are simply CLUELESS about_ **everything else**_!" he snarled out as his green eyes flashed with the radiance of the Killing Curse that had been used on him years before by Voldemort…in answer to the prophecy whose recording was now in his hand. "Put it together! The Philosopher's Stone, the Chamber of Secrets, the Triwizard Tournament…not to mention Tom coming to kill me when I was a baby! Doesn't that say something?!" _

_"In other words…it's either You-Know-Who or Harry!" Hermione stated. _

_Ron blinked…and then he moaned. "Right…" _

_Harry smiled…and then he placed the prophecy orb in Lucius' hand. "There you go," he said. "Now, since you probably also came here to try to kill me or capture me to take me to your master, what say we step out into the main hall here and have a good old fashioned wand duel to see if that happens? Sound okay to you?" _

_The Death Eaters jolted, surprised on hearing that flippant tone in the voice of the Boy-Who-Lived, and then Bellatrix sneered. "And what makes you think, little Potty, that we're going to behave ourselves?! The Dark Lord wants you…!" _

_"Rose. Torture them," Harry coldly bade. _

_A lethal smile crossed his sister's face. "Can I _kill_ them, Big Brother?" Rose then asked with a pout. _

_"You can kill them once Tom gets here," Harry stated. _

_"Oh, okay! _POTENTIO MUTIPLO MORSMORDRE CRUCIO!_" _

_And all the Death Eaters screamed in agony…_

* * *

"Harry already has a proxy for his family vote; it's his wife," Elaine Savage noted.

"True…but there are several of Tsukiko-sensei's other apprentices who could be allowed to fill their family seats, Elaine," Hermione stated, ignoring the shivers from many of the people present on her saying _that_ name. "If necessary, Raven Malfoy can take Draco's place as regent for Scorpius if he does something stupid; the old laws wouldn't allow Astoria to serve as regent because she is currently Daphne's heir to the Greengrass family seat in the Wizengamot. Atop that, there's Sally-Anne Perks' lover Libera Meretrice, Vince Crabbe's sister Charlotte, Greg Goyle's sister Ariel…and the biggest prize of all: Bellatrix Lestrange's daughter Cassiopeia."

Hearing that, the others hummed. The younger Vincent Crabbe had been the only one of Hogwarts' Class of 1991 to die before final graduation in 1998; he was killed in the Battle of Hogwarts nearly a year earlier thanks to an accident with Fiendfyre that immolated parts of the Room of Requirement…and destroyed one of Voldemort's horcruxi stored there, the Diadem of Ravenclaw. Because of that, the Most Noble House of Crabbe of Saxmundham was cut down to the elder Vincent Crabbe and his long-suffering wife Helena. Thanks to his crimes as a Death Eater, the then-Lord Crabbe was imprisoned in Azkaban for the rest of his life and his family seat declared defunct…even though his still-born daughter had been saved by the Curse of Hufflepuff and given new life as Charlotte Crabbe. A graduate of Meridiana who took classes alongside Nekane Springfield, the niece of the Thousand Master himself, Charlotte — like Rose — apprenticed under Yomigawa Tsukiko and currently lived with her mother at their home near the North Sea coast of Suffolk. These days, she helped manage her family fortune; Charlotte herself could not inherit direct control over the family vault in Gringotts thanks to the Treaty of Ynys Môn and the laws stemming from it that blocked Meridiana students or alumni from having anything to do with anything under the control or influence of the Ministry of Magic or any Hogwarts student or alumni. To help earn her own personal income, Charlotte secretly worked as a home tutor for normal-born young wizards, witches and magi before they would go to Hogwarts or Meridiana with the approval of both Headmistress Minerva McGonagall and the current Magus of the Meridiana Magic Academy, Master Afon Tryweryn.

Greg Goyle currently served as the Viscount of Wolverhampton. Like Draco Malfoy, Greg escaped imprisonment after the Battle of Hogwarts because he had not been marked as a Death Eater by Voldemort, thus he could claim his family seat after his father had been sentenced to life in prison for treason against the Crown and the Ministry. A year after graduating, he married Hestia Carrow, a sister Slytherin from the Class of 1992 who was one of twin daughters of one of Voldemort's senior fighters, Amycus Carrow. Thanks to Harry killing Amycus and his sister Alecto during "Death Eater Season" in the summer of 1997, Hestia's twin sister Flora became the new Baroness of Norwich…and, out of sheer disgust for her father and aunt and their murderous ways, eventually married a normal-born Hufflepuff from the Class of 1994, Kevin Whitby. Hestia was persuaded by her mother Melia to marry Greg Goyle to form an alliance between the two families. And while she had trouble trying to influence her husband — Greg was still doggedly loyal to Draco, as his father Lance had been to Lucius — Hestia had become close friends to Greg's once-lost sister Ariel, Charlotte's dorm-mate at Meridiana and another friend of Nekane Springfield's. These days, Ariel resided at the Goyle family home and effectively served as the family matriarch; their mother Philippa had passed away five years ago, shortly after Lance himself died in Azkaban. Despite all Draco's words concerning Ariel, there was nothing that could be done to force her from the Goyle home; before her death, Philippa made sure her son would properly accept his sister.

The Most Noble House of Meretrice of Wye — their ancestral keep was located in the village of Rhosan Green at the north end of the Forest of Dean — had produced nothing but squibs since the mid-1800s. Unlike Voldemort's maternal relatives, it wasn't because of extreme inbreeding; the true cause of the mass birth of squibs since that time remained a mystery to this very day. Because of that, their family seat in the Wizengamot was kept in recess until it was declared "defunct" in 1957. During the First Purification War, Voldemort himself had sensed that magical children would be born of several couples from Rhosan Green, then moved to demand that the parents swear fidelity to him and his cause. Said parents refused him; they knew of Voldemort's ancestry and refused to serve a half-blood bastard child. That caused them to be killed en masse…when Ceres Meretrice had been pregnant with QUINTUPLETS!

Fortunately for those poor children — not to mention the unborn children of other couples who lived in Rhosan Green — their spirits were preserved by the Curse of Hufflepuff long enough for a Niphentaxian observer on Earth to find them thanks to his adopted Avalonian daughter…and eventually were allowed to truly live six years after the First Purification War ended at Godric's Hollow. All had been classmates of Nekane's at Meridiana, though they had never taken lessons under the infamous Tsukuyomi. These days, the Meretrice sisters and their coven-mates from Rhosan Green all lived private lives…though the eldest of the quints, Libera, was soul-bonded to one of Harry's and Hermione's normal-born peers from Hogwarts, Sally-Anne Perks. It was because of that soul-bond that the blonde tomboyish Hufflepuff had withdrawn from school before OWLs had been held in the late spring of 1996 as — so it was said at the time — there could be _no_ romantic liaisons between a Hogwarts student and a Meridiana student. Sally-Anne would eventually take her OWLs after the Battle of Hogwarts…though, in the wake of her being made to resign from school over a year earlier, she elected to become the homemaker in hers and Libera's relationship. She also vowed to ensure no child raised by her and Libera would EVER attend Hogwarts.

As for Cassiopeia Lestrange and Raven Malfoy…

* * *

_Level Nine of the Headquarters of Her Majesty's Ministry of Magic, Tuesday 18 June 1996, an hour before sunset… _

_"Hello, Mother." _

_Bellatrix gasped on hearing that quiet voice, and then she turned… _

_…before she found herself gazing wide-eyed on a woman who — save for the subtle differences in facial features and the lighter shade of hair that matched what her husband and brother-in-law had — could have been_ her _twenty years ago! _

_"Wh-who…?" _

_"_Morsmordre Crucio!_" _

_Bellatrix screamed in agony as the burning sensation of the Cruciatus Curse ripped through her Dark Mark and assaulted every nerve in her body. As she collapsed to the tiled floor of the Death Chamber — where she had, minutes before, condemned her cousin Sirius Black to the Veil — the most skilled of Voldemort's followers tried desperately to hang onto her wand as this nightmarish image slowly advanced on her. Watching this from nearby, many of the Order of the Phoenix and the students from Hogwarts — including a stunned Harry Potter, now being comforted by Rose — were simply speechless at the sheer level of power and control Bellatrix's daughter showed in wandlessly torturing the older woman. After about a minute or so, Cassiopeia made a wave of her fingers to cancel the Cruciatus on her mother's Dark Mark before sighing. "_This_ is how you can hurt them, Harry," she then calmly stated as she gazed on her friend's brother. "Don't bother with such a plain curse. Spice it up a bit!" _

_"Besides, it's totally_ legal _under your laws," a voice from nearby declared. _

_Everyone looked over to the sultry platinum blonde woman — who looked EXACTLY like a female Draco Malfoy — now standing over her unconscious father. "What do you mean, Raven?" Hermione — who had just been saved by Draco's sister from a dark flame curse flung at her by Antonin Dolohov with a handy shield charm — then asked. _

_Raven Malfoy's pale blue eyes then sparkled. "Watch, Mione-chan… _

_"_Morsmordre Imperio!_" _

_Lucius gargled as all conscious thought vanished from his mind, and then he slowly got to his feet. As people watched this, he took his wand and levelled it on Antonin. The raven-haired Slavic wizard — Antonin was descent from magical Russians who had fled to Britain in the wake of the October Revolution of 1917 — paled. "Lucius, no…!" _

_"_Avada Kedavra!_" _

_A blast of green light later, the man who had tried to kill Hermione minutes earlier collapsed dead onto the floor. As most of the Order of the Phoenix gaped in horror at the sight of one of the deadliest of Voldemort's fighters slain at the hand of his very own comrade, Raven snapped her fingers. Lucius jolted…and then paled as his memories caught up with him. "No…Antonin…!" he gasped before he tensed on hearing the sensual _hiss!_ of a sword being drawn out of its scabbard. "No…!" _

_"Pity you have always been so short-sighted, Father," a voice that sounded so much like his wife's then declared. "If you had only accepted certain things, I wouldn't have to do_ this _to you…!" _

_Lucius then screamed as the glowing blade of a katana punched through his body below his diaphragm. With a quick drawback, Raven yanked her sword out of her father's body, thus allowing him to collapse on the floor. "Lucius!" Lance Goyle screamed in horror before he levelled his wand at the silver-haired demon that had stabbed his friend. "_CRUCIO!_" he bellowed out as a bright red blast of energy zeroed in on Raven. _

_Seeing that, members of the Order moved to stun him unconscious…before they stopped to gaze in disbelief on seeing Raven Malfoy NOT affected by the torture curse now washing over her thanks to Greg Goyle's father. As the Death Eater trying to hurt her stopped — his eyes wide with disbelief on seeing that this hideous demon was unbothered by what he had tried to do to her — Raven smirked. "Ouch." _

_"Damn…!" Ron Weasley gasped. _

_Raven smiled at him. "You are a cute one, aren't you?" As the youngest Weasley son turned a deep shade of red, Draco's sister then glared at Lance. "My turn… _

_"_Morsmordre Crucio!_" _

_Lance wailed in pain as a very faint beam of light escaped Raven's hand to tear into his left arm…and then said beam was cut off by a large hunk of masonry. As Lance collapsed unconscious to the floor, Raven turned before she sighed. "Why?" _

_"That was not necessary, young lady." _

_The members of the Order breathed out in relief on seeing the former headmaster of Hogwarts step into the Death Chamber. "Professor Dumbledore!" Nymphadora Tonks called out. "Thank Merlin you're here! Tsukuyomi's here! These girls are…!" _

_"Calm yourself, Nymphadora. I can always sense it whenever she's close by," Albus Dumbledore stated before he sighed and looked around. "Tsukiko! I know you're here! Show yourself!" _

_He then tensed before turning…and then he sighed as he levelled the Elder Wand at the black-eyed woman standing at the doorway leading into the main hall of the Department of Mysteries. "Hello, Albus," Yomigawa Tsukiko stated as she stepped into the light, her voice dripping with scorn. "It's been a long time, hasn't it?" _

_He glared at her…_

* * *

"Alright, then," Kingsley stated with a firm nod of his head. "Hermione, I want you and Daphne to team together to research all the laws stemming from the Treaty of Ynys Môn. If you can get a bill prepared, have it done by Monday coming up."

Hermione and Daphne exchanged looks, and then they nodded…

* * *

The London borough of Barnet, a hidden house near Mays Lane, an hour later…

"Renegotiate the Treaty of Ynys Môn? Why?"

Hermione sighed. "Because until a new treaty is in place, you can't get at your family vault in Gringotts. And we need to get to that vault before your mother gets a chance and finally learns of what exactly is inside that vault," she said before sipping from the cup of sencha Cassiopeia Lestrange had given her. "Besides, it would clear away the final obstacle from you — not to mention Libera Meretrice and Charlotte Crabbe — taking control of the family seat in the Wizengamot. Originally, it didn't matter what school you went to when it came to sitting in the Wizard's Council; the prohibition came into play with the Ministry Governance Act of 1705 when the modern Ministry was formed."

"Then amend the act," Cassiopeia stated. "That's all you have to do."

Both Hermione and Daphne blinked. "That's all?" the latter demanded.

"That's all," the brown-haired, hazel-eyed daughter of Voldemort's most powerful fighter said with a smirk. "You know, Sensei is so right when it comes to European wand magicals. How easily you complicate things that are so simple in the long term."

"I can agree with that," Hermione stated as Daphne laughed. "So why just amend that?"

"Simple. The Treaty of Ynys Môn was a magical 'gentleman's agreement' between the first Magus of Meridiana and the Founders of Hogwarts so that neither side could poach potential students from the other school. Remember how fractured magical teaching was a millennia ago. Private apprenticeships with no set standards. The only decent place to learn how to use magic in the Christian world at the time thanks to the Muslims having seized Jerusalem — thus invoking the Pope's wrath and his Magical Papal Bull concerning seeking magical training in Islamic-influenced schools — was Ariadne." As the visiting witches nodded, their magi-trained host sighed. "Of course, people back then didn't want to travel to another PLANET to learn magic alongside all sorts of magical creatures…especially given the fact that many humans could interbreed with the native Nerioites. And did, too!" That earned her laughter from Hermione and Daphne; both had seen pictures of the many human-like therianthropes native to what was properly called "Nerio" and most often nicknamed the _Mundus Magicus_, which orbited the Sun between Earth and Mars in a quasi-hidden magical pocket dimension that couldn't be breached by normal means. So many of them were so human…even if they had animal ears and tails! "So Magus Bryn proposed that a magical sensor net be laid out all across Britain and Ireland, linked to the Roll Books in both Hogwarts and Meridiana. As soon as a magical was born, the Roll Books would automatically try to interpret what sort of magic the newborn possessed. Any links with Nerio…"

"Was an automatic candidate for Meridiana. Most anyone else went to Hogwarts," Daphne finished for her host. "And that's been going on ever since."

"Right," Cassiopeia affirmed with a nod. "And back in those days — long before the Statute of Wizarding Secrecy was even proposed as a way of dealing with the Dark Times of Magic during the Reformation years — there were occasions when Hogwarts graduates and Meridiana graduates worked together to deal with magical issues. I can't even speculate on how many magical pactios were created between a Meridiana-trained mage and a Hogwarts-trained wizard or witch. Many Meridiana graduates served in the Wizard's Council; several even served as the Chief Sorcerer or Sorceress of the Kingdom!"

"Wait…"

Eyes locked on Daphne. "What?" Hermione asked.

"I just realized why people moved to cut Meridiana and its alumni off from the Ministry."

"What's that?" Cassiopeia asked.

"Because of the whole pactio thing," the Countess of Mutuantonis stated. "Look at Negi Springfield. When he went to teach English at Mahora, he formed pactios with all sorts of people. Most of them were what we'd call 'muggle' here in Britain. His wife would be a muggle by that standard." She smirked. "The Statute of Secrecy demands that no normal person who is not an immediate relative of the wizard or witch in question — by blood or marriage — can be informed of the existence of magic. The only exceptions to that rule are officers of government who need to be in the know."

"So when the Ministry Governance Act was proposed to reform the Wizard's Council, those who had been trained at Meridiana couldn't agree to cut off all potential contacts with normals. That would have limited their choices of potential partners to form pactios with." Hermione then shook her head. "Idiots…just another damned, stupid way of trying to control things to no one's real benefit!" she spat out. "No wonder Tsukiko-sensei went berserk on all the colonial ministries in Asia in the 1940s!"

Cassiopeia laughed. "It's a wonder to me that they didn't try to kill you when you agreed to become Sensei's apprentice before Riddle was killed, Mione-chan," she said. "It should have been as obvious as coal in a ballroom that you wouldn't stop until you finally dragged all the wand-wavers in this country into the Twenty-first Century."

"That's always been her good point," Daphne noted. "By the way…"

"I haven't seen Mother…and I have alert wards all over the property that will scream it out if she tries to come into the house," Cassiopeia stated with a tired sigh. "The only place I _can't_ ward is the vault at Gringotts. Did you tell Griphook…?"

"He knows," Hermione stated with a nod. "They'll keep an eye out for her."

"So how should we word the bill for Monday?" Daphne asked.

Hermione smirked as she drew out a pad of paper and a pen…

* * *

Islington, 12 Grimmauld Place, that moment…

"I think we're burning Harry out, girls!"

Both Mandy Potter and Pansy Black perked on hearing their co-lover's words. "No! You think?!" Harry's Slytherin wife then said as she smirked at Nymphadora Tonks-Lupin, who was now officially seen as the Man-Who-Won's consort. While any children born between Harry Potter and the now-retired metamorphmagus auror would have the proper protection of both the Noble and Most Ancient Houses of Potter of Taunton Deane and Black of Grimmauld, no such child could directly inherit either family seat…unlike the case of any child born of the former Mandy Brocklehurst or Pansy Parkinson. Added to that was the complication that Mandy was _**also**_ the heiress apparent of the Noble House of Lynch of Knapton. This would normally mean that any second child between Harry and Mandy would become the next Baron or Baroness of Knapton. Mandy hoped to convince Dora to take up the proxy vote for her late mother's family — as Dora was Mandy's co-lover, it would be allowed under normal circumstances — but after everyone had got back to Grimmauld Place in the wake of the previous day's events at the Wizengamot, more primal urges had taken over and they had spent the night ravaging their husband/lover.

"We are going pretty crazy with him," Mandy noted as she sipped her tea, gazing out the kitchen window onto the quiet lane where they lived. "Why is that, anyway?"

"Simple," Pansy stated. "With our magic returned to us, our cores are driving us to mate with our husband to bring forth children. In Dora's case, Harry is not just Teddy's godfather, he's also a very powerful wizard who could father more children for her now that she's recovered from what her aunt did to her. But…"

"Magic doesn't seem to realize that our bioroid bodies need about a month to fully start ovulating so we can get knocked up finally," Dora finished with a smirk as she gave Pansy an appraising look. For the sake of Dora's son, all three women were dressed in housecoats…though they didn't go far past their crotches and none of them wanted to wear panties or any other foundation garment. "Lucky thing we turned down Lady Negako's invite to learn the tantric arts of her family's school."

"My God! We'd kill Harry if we used THAT on him!" Mandy moaned.

"Good point," Pansy mused as she got up to put her tea cup into her sink, and then she poised herself behind her co-wife as her hands reached under Mandy's housecoat to get at her firm buttocks, that making the other girl gasp in shock.

"Pansy!" Mandy yelped.

"Drop the shields, Mandy-vayae," Pansy purred into the other woman's ear as her fingers gently began to probe between Mandy's legs. "It's what our husband wants…"

Smirking at the sight of Pansy — who clearly liked being in the dominant position when it came to any female lovers she had — trying to trigger the genetic programming inside Mandy so they could become _marei'cha_ at last, Dora stood up and walked out of the kitchen into the sitting room so she could relax before the hearth fire and allow her re-awoken magic to fully bind with her new body and all its wonderful abilities.

"I take it your co-lovers are being a little frisky now, Dora?" a voice then teased.

Dora smirked. "Well, even if there are still some dominance issues inside their subconscious minds, I think they'll bond pretty soon, Grandaunt," she said as she gazed on the portraits of Walburga and Orion Black, Sirius' parents.

"And what of you, young lady?" the portrait of Phineas Nigellus Black then asked from Dora's left rear. "Any possible soul-mate for you? I know you miss Remus…"

A sigh as her eyes teared. "Yeah…"

The portraits in the living room fell respectfully silent as they sensed the retired auror about to break down and cry. Given what had ultimately happened to her, it was quite understandable that she still felt the raw pain of the death of her husband Remus Lupin at the Battle of Hogwarts. Forced into a magical coma by Bellatrix Lestrange in 1997, Nymphadora Lupin had spent the next thirteen years in a "wide-awake nothing" until she had been allowed days ago to become a Terran-turned-Avalonian thanks to the Earth Angel, Moroboshi Negako, aboard H.M.S. _Hood_ during a levée with Her Majesty in attendance. While it had done Dora a ton of good — her overall magical power had increased by fifty percent once she awoke in her new body — it still didn't help her get over the fact that she had missed out on the birth and early life of her son Ted, much less help her mourn the loss of her husband…to say anything of her parents, both of whom had been killed by Death Eaters in the late spring of 1997, just before Albus Dumbledore was mercy-killed by Severus Snape during a failed invasion of Hogwarts by Voldemort's forces.

Dora DID have the comfort that those people who had killed her parents — the infamous Carrow siblings — had been hunted down and killed by Harry Potter personally.

But still…

"You should seek out a separate lover, Dora," Phineas then advised. "Yes, it is — in your eyes — still too soon, but Avalonians DO practice 'intimate therapy' for those who lost a loved one. Ms. O'Neill and Ms. Carter told us that once."

Dora hummed. "I don't know, Professor…" she then breathed out. "I mean, I'd prefer a magical lover, of course…" — that earned her approving nods from both Orion and Walburga — "…but the only one close to my age I could see being lovers with is Hermione Granger. Harry looks on her as an adopted sister; it would just weird them out to get them in a _surei'cha_-type situation." She then hummed. "Still…"

"What?" Orion asked.

"There are some of the other girls Ambassador Holmes' father helped rescue from the power of the Curse of Hufflepuff and made Avalonians back in the mid-1980s," Dora noted.

All the portraits gaped at her. "That's right! Harry's delightful sister is one of them!" Phineas stated. "I even heard that Bellatrix has a daughter who's one!"

"Cassiopeia!" Walburga stated, giggling with pride. "I just loved watching Harry put her, Rose and Raven onto the family tapestry after he became the head of house!"

"Still, Rose IS Harry's sister," Dora noted. "Raven and Cassiopeia are my maternal first cousins, too!" She hummed. "There ARE the Meretrice girls, though…"

"Sarah Perks' sisters-in-law, you mean?" Orion asked.

Dora gaped. "You know Sally-Anne?!"

"Of course!" Walburga said as the other portraits all laughed, and then she frowned. "That poor girl! Just because she met up with Lady Libera in the Forest of Dean before her fifth year and fell in love with her was no excuse to make her leave Hogwarts!"

"There was no violation whatsoever of the Statute of Secrecy rules," the portrait of Sirius' grandfather and Orion's predecessor as head of the House of Black, Arcturus, then stated. "Sarah was a witch — a muggleborn, yes, but wanting to learn everything about her new society…and her parents served the Queen as soldiers, for Merlin's sake! — and Libera was learning how to be a mage at Meridiana! That was done for centuries before the Statute was passed!" He shook his head. "Disgusting…!"

"That was another thing we could blame old Delores Um-bitch for!" Dora snarled before sipping the rest of her tea before relaxing in her chair…

* * *

Unseen by his mother and unnoticed by the portraits in the living room, a smiling brown-haired boy of twelve was standing very still in the hallway that connected the living room with the kitchen and the stairs heading to the upper floors. Dressed now in a blue H.M.S. _Hood_ T-shirt — one of a set of five that had been given to him by Ginny Weasley's new wife, the former Nell McAndrew, on Sunday — and slacks, Ted Lupin could only smirk as he ghosted his way up the stairs up to the second floor, where his bedroom was located. Walking inside and locking the door magically behind him — Harry had begun teaching his godson wandless magic after Ted's seventh birthday — he then made his way to his work desk, where a dataPADD awaited him. Another present from Nell McAndrew-Weasley, the Avalonian-built laptop computer/communicator was fully linked to both the HyperNet and the MagicNet; Ted had taken the device to the Technomancy Shoppe to get the links to the magical version of the Internet put in the day before while Harry and his wives were busy tearing apart the stalebloods in the Wizengamot.

With the PADD, he was now able to get in contact with a whole host of people…including Harry's maternal first cousin once removed, Margaret Dursley. A pretty girl who just turned seven, she was the daughter of Harry's cousin Dudley Dursley and his late wife Eleanor Dresden; the older woman had died in an auto accident on the M25 when Maggie was only two. Dudley — with silent financial support from Harry — chose to raise Maggie as a single parent…but the grief Maggie's father felt at the loss of his wife drove him into taking drugs. Arrested and forced into detox — which he had accepted with a grace and maturity that shocked all of those people he had bullied in the past — Dudley allowed his parents Vernon and Petunia to take charge of Maggie until he was clean and could once more act as a proper father. It was all okay…

…until she began displaying signs of accidental magic.

To Dudley's parents, it was simply too much.

While some would state that being forced to care for Harry Potter — who had been left on the Dursleys' doorstep in the MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT after Voldemort's first fall by Albus Dumbledore…who hadn't even done the basic, decent courtesy of informing Lily Potter's sister of what had happened at Godric's Hollow — without any chance to choose whether or not to take responsibility for a magical child was a mitigating factor, it still never excused the level of emotional and physical abuse they heaped on Petunia's nephew over the next ten years. Recalling that, Ted then grinned as he remembered a pensieve memory Harry had shown him of the day the Dursleys were shown how powerless they were when it came to their nephew…

* * *

_The borough of Camden in London, King's Cross Station near Platform 9 3/4, Friday 28 June 1996, late afternoon… _

_"We thought we'd just have a few words with you about Harry," Arthur Weasley said. _

_"Yeah," Alastor Moody growled. "About how he's treated when he's at your place." _

_Watching his uncle and aunt quiver in outrage over being confronted by four adult magicals, Harry tried not to smirk on seeing Vernon and Petunia Dursley put on the spot like this…especially on the_ normal _side of the entrance to Platform 9 3/4. A quick glance to Dudley Dursley, however, surprised Harry. His maternal cousin — who was still quite large, though clearly becoming quite buff and muscular because of his boxing — was glancing fearfully about…but his eyes were focusing on Harry, then his father, then back to Harry again. Noting that, Harry smirked. Pity that a certain arrangement had been made; hadn't a certain someone from Japan imposed herself between the Boy-Who-Lived and the Ministry of Magic, he would still be subject to the Trace on his wand. Not to mention still be under the magical guardianship of Albus Dumbledore…which would be legally terminated the instant he walked into Gringotts for Sirius Black's will reading; his new sensei had told him about the vision his godfather had around Easter — the coming of the Grim — which foretold his pending death. _

_Fortunately, Gringotts didn't care at all about the legal status of wizards who had NOT been given any sort of trial for crimes by the Ministry of Magic. _

_Oh, dear…too bad… _

_Finally, after a moment of his moustache flaring and his skin turning a deep shade of puce, Vernon then snarled, "I am not aware that it is any of your business…" _

_"Are these the creatures who_ abused _you, Harry-kun?" _

_Arthur, Dora Tonks and Remus Lupin all paled on hearing that cold voice as Harry turned to smile at the Oriental woman in the fashionable business suit who just walked through the barrier dividing Platform 9 3/4 from the rest of King's Cross. Moody smirked as he gazed over his shoulder at Harry's new teacher. "Aye, Lady Tsukuyomi, these are the pathetic arse-wipes that find it no problem to lock up children in_ **cupboards under the stairs** _because they might be a bit different," the retired master auror stated with a toothy grin. "Pity questions about James' and Lily's wills were never raised at the Ministry before that idiot dumped the lad with these fools!" As the adult Dursleys sputtered on hearing such words applied to them — Dudley was gaping in surprise at what Moody just said — the old warrior added, "Might have saved Harry some trouble." _

_"Well, it will be resolved very soon," Yomigawa Tsukiko stated as she reached up to pull off her sunglasses to reveal her black eyes, that making Vernon and Petunia croak out in horror on seeing such unnatural dark orbs peeking out of such a normal-looking face. Dudley was also gaping, though more in curiosity. It was something the Dark Lady of the Orient was quick to note. "You have a question, young man?" _

_Dudley blinked, and then he asked, "Are you a metahuman?" _

_Tsukiko blinked in surprise on hearing THAT asked of her…and then she roared with laughter as Harry snickered and Moody guffawed. As Dudley's parents looked at him in shock and disbelief, the visitor from Japan winked at him. "Actually, my eyes are like this thanks to a rather ugly accident with some ebony meson when I was much younger and not so wise to the ways of the world. You must be Harry-kun's cousin. No after-effects from those soul-wraiths that attacked you last summer near your home?" _

_A wry smirk crossed his face in response. "Depends on how you define 'after-effects,' ma'am." _

_"Dudley…" _

_"Be silent…or be_ dead_." _

_Petunia croaked on hearing that dire threat from Tsukiko, and then she turned to gaze on Moody. "You can't allow her to do this! You have laws…!" _

_"_Silencio!_" _

_Vernon jolted on hearing total silence from his wife. "BOY! You'll…!" _

_"_Silencio!_" _

_Now he was flapping his jaw with no effect…which made the other Weasleys and the Grangers — all of whom had gathered nearby to watch this — snicker with delight. "When I get finished with you, Harry-kun, you'll be able to do that_ wandlessly _and_ without spoken words_," Tsukiko vowed before she glared at the adult Dursleys. "I do not threaten people like Alastor-san and his friends were about to do. I_ promise_…and I_ fulfil _my promises. Karma has a way of striking back at you for bad deeds. You now have to answer for_ sixteen years _of abuse…and I will see to it you_ **do** _answer for it!" She smiled at Dudley. "Follow your son's honourable example…or else I may have to contact a friend named Dean Raeburn." As Vernon and Petunia gaped in shock on hearing the name of the leader of the War Hawks, Tsukiko added, "She's friends with your _Queen_. I wonder how Her Majesty would view your actions towards your nephew." As the adult Dursleys turned a sickly grey on hearing THAT unspoken threat — like many normal Britons, they were passionate monarchists…and could guess what the disfavour of the Crown could do to them — she gazed on Dudley. "We'll be busy at Gringotts for a day or so, Dudley-san. Be assured, you will be protected from Voldemort and his ilk by two house elves who have gladly agreed to serve Harry-kun. We shall arrive at the house tomorrow. Come, Harry-kun!" _

_Harry nodded at Dudley…before spitting into his aunt's face, which made Petunia recoil in shock. He then headed off in Tsukiko's wake as Moody whispered, "_Finite!_" He then smirked. "You're thinking right now about finding some way of putting Harry down again when we're not watching," he whispered at them as they shied away from that ravaged visage now looming over them. "Think again. That lady that's become Harry's new teacher is seen by us as a_ **million times worse** _than Voldemort's EVER been! Back in World War Two, she totally_ **destroyed** _all the colonial magical ministries in Asia, from India to Indonesia and everywhere in-between. She helped_ **bring down** _the International Confederation of Wizards; that was our version of the League of Nations until 1946. And while many of the fools in this country still hate her for doing that, the rest of the world sees her as one of the greatest freedom fighters ever to live! There's no way in hell that the Ministry OR Dumbledore will come to your rescue in case Harry wants a reckoning…which he'd be entitled to. Remember that, Dursley." _

_Hermione had, by then, come up to join them. "The fact that Harry turned out so well despite you two and that drunken monster you call a sister, Dursley, amazes me. I'm glad that Tsukuyomi-sama has come to finally straighten things around. And I hope to heaven that bulldog-loving _bitch_ comes to your house!" As Vernon sputtered — though he was quick to see Dan Granger, who was a former British Army officer who had served in the Royal Army Dental Corps and still looked it, glaring at him to try to do something to his little girl — the normal-born of the Golden Trio turned away. "I heard Tsukuyomi-sama has a thing for _dog stew_!" _

_With a gay laugh, she headed off to rejoin her parents as Vernon and Petunia exchanged horrified looks and Dudley found himself trying not to laugh. _

_Much that he did care for Aunt Marge, he HATED the damned dogs…!_

* * *

"What's so funny, Teddy?"

Ted gasped on hearing that voice, and then he flustered. "Sorry, Maggie…"

"It's cool," Margaret O'Neill-Carter (_née_ Dursley) said from her own bedroom at 5 Privet Drive in Little Whinging. A beautiful girl who inherited her father's raven hair and brown eyes, she no longer had the haunted look in those orbs indicative of the abuse she had received at the hands of her grandparents for a period of about a half-year…until one of Arabella Figg's kneazles, Tufty, had taken notice and then wandered into a house inhabited by two "strange humans with a lava scent." There, he came into contact with Private Lucy O'Neill of the 3rd Battalion, the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment — now serving as an acting corporal in the 1st Battalion of the Queen's Royal Regiment (West Surrey) — and her bond-mate Shelley Carter, who was then an officer in the Surrey team of the Special Protected Persons Bureau of the Home Office and now served as Elder Mother of all Avalonian-Britons living in Surrey. On mind-melding with Tufty, Lucy and Shelley learned Maggie was a "witch kitten," then reported same to Arabella…who immediately called in Harry Potter.

In the wake of that, Maggie was adopted by Lucy and Shelley as their child with Dudley's blessings; he was currently serving the second year of rehab at Her Majesty's Prison Ford near Arundel for his drug addiction and probably wouldn't be paroled for a few years to come. Vernon and Petunia, however, were serving what Americans called "hard time" for their abuse of Maggie — and their nephew as well from 1981 to 1996 thanks to the secret intervention of Harry's friends in the DMLE — with the former now held at H.M. Prison High Down near Banstead…and the latter at H.M. Prison Bronzefield near Ashford.

"I was just remembering what Harry showed me of his memories of the time Tsukiko-sensei took him on as his apprentice and she threatened your grandparents," Ted added.

Maggie giggled on hearing that. While she was still too young to really understand why her grandparents had done that to her — after all, they had fully supported her father when he elected to raise her on his own after her mother died — she had the resiliency of youth, two loving foster parents and the discovery of magic to boost her along. Even better, her "Uncle Harry" arranged for a truly cool friend named Charlotte Crabbe to start teaching her magic in the Meridiana style, using training wands and the very wordy style that went into spell-casting. And best of all, Maggie didn't have to worry about some silly underage magic restriction; Meridiana-type wands weren't tracked by the Ministry of Magic in London. Though, to teach her responsibility when it came to using magic, "Aunt Charlotte" had given her student a special hypnotic suggestion to make sure she didn't show off her powers around normals unless it was an emergency. When he learned how Charlotte trained magicals and STILL made sure the Statute was obeyed, Ted wished they would do something like that for Hogwarts students as well.

Even if he could get away with it living in a magical home, all the normal-borns in his classes weren't so blessed…and that wouldn't change anytime soon, it seemed.

"So what's happening about your mom's aunt? Have they found her yet?" Maggie asked.

He shook his head. "Nah! Can't believe she 'ported out of St. Mungo's…!"

_KK-KRACK!_

Ted yelped in shock before he spun around…and then he watched morbidly as a woman in the dark red robe-like gown of a patient at St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, who had just somehow APPEARED by his locked door, staggered for a second, then toppled face-first into the floor. Silence then fell as Ted gazed down at her — he was quick to spot the greying-black hair on her head — and then he turned to gaze wide-eyed at Maggie. "Who was that?!" the younger girl then asked.

Ted blinked before he sighed. "Winky!"

_Pop!_ "Master Teddy! What…OH, MY!" a certain house elf gasped on seeing the unconscious woman on the floor of her youngest charge's bedroom. "What is Mistress Bella doing here?! Mistress Bella is sick! She should be in hospital!"

As Winky immediately moved to levitate Bellatrix Lestrange — who looked much older than her current fifty-nine years of age…which made her physically in her mid-thirties by normal standards — onto Ted's bed, the young metamorphmagus got off her chair to stand close to his maternal grandaunt. At her home in Surrey, Maggie activated her dataPADD's holo-projection system, which was modelled after the like communications system from _Star Wars_, thus allowing her to literally watch what was going on in her favourite cousin's bedroom. "Wow! She looks really out of it!" she noted.

Winky nodded. "Yes, Mistress Maggie! Mistress Bella's magic is very weak!" She then waved her hand over Bellatrix's still face…and then she gasped. "The Earth Angel…!" she whispered in awed fright. "The Earth Angel did this to her…!"

Ted's jaw dropped. "The soulsword!" he gasped. "Miss Negako used a soulsword to make Mummy wake up from her coma! She did the same thing to Uncle Neville's parents, too!"

"Soulsword backlash."

Ted looked…and then he grinned. "Hey, Aunt Shelley!"

Shelley Carter was now standing behind her daughter, warmly hugging Maggie as she leaned her chin on the younger girl's head. A beautiful woman appearing to be in her early twenties, the Terran-form Avalonian-Briton had been an administrative assistant on one of the villages on Phentax Twelve before the Liberation. Possessing wavy raven hair to her mid-back and eyes the shade of chocolate, she had helped process the refugee applications of nearly a quarter-million sisters who had elected to live in Surrey during the last two weeks of February and the first three weeks of March this year. These days, she — atop doing the traditional duties of Elder Mother — was a junior administrator for the Home Office working for the Borough of Runnymede, where Little Whinging was located. Today was her day off from work. "Hi, Ted! So what's your grandaunt doing in your bedroom?"

"She escaped from St. Mungo's after Miss Negako helped Mummy and Uncle Neville's parents wake up," Ted stated. "Everyone couldn't believe it; you can't apparate out of St. Mungo's…just like you can't do it out of Hogwarts! But why…"

"This was Mistress Bella's bedroom when she was a child and stayed with her cousins, Master Teddy," Winky stated. "Winky remembers old Kreacher telling her that."

Ted hummed…and then he reached over to open one of Bellatrix's eyes. Gazing into that dull hazel orb, he then shook his head. "The lights are on…but no one's home," he whispered as he closed the eyelid. "Well, better call Uncle Harry…"

"Teddy, wait!" Shelley called out. "I don't think there's much that St. Mungo's can do for a soulsword victim. Let me get her brought over to one of our healers. Even if she was guilty of terrorism and other crimes, she still has the right to live."

Ted gazed at Maggie's adopted mother, and then he nodded…

_**To Be Concluded…**_

* * *

**WRITER'S NOTES**

1) Harry Potter's sister **Rose Potter**, Draco Malfoy's sister **Raven Malfoy**, Bellatrix Lestrange's daughter **Cassiopeia Lestrange**, Neville Longbottom's sister **Grace Longbottom** and others of the group of Terran-turned-Avalonian Meridiana-trained magi mentioned in this story are all characters I first introduced in my _Icemaidens_ stories. In the universe of this story, I speculate that Lily Potter and witches of her generation were pregnant at the time of the attack on Godric's Hollow on 31 October 1981…but would never give birth to living children. The **Curse of Helga Hufflepuff** mentioned here is this universe's analogue to the combination of the **Kokujun** ("Shield of the Realm") ward stone spell-transmission system and the **Desidero Infantis** ("Lost Child") spell introduced in my _Icemaidens_ stories. However, with the presence of the Avalonians in this universe, there was a much easier way to have those children brought back to life.

2) Translations: **Minna** — Everyone; **-dono** — Japanese suffix honorific stemming from the word _tono_, which means "master" and is above the polite "-san" honorific and below the very respectful "-sama" honorific in terms of level of respect…and is often used to indicate the head of one's family; **Freiherr** — Literally "free lord," this is the German noble title that falls in between a knight and a count, thus making it the equivalent of a British baron; **Bunka Go-nen** — The Fifth Year of Bunka (meaning "cultural achievement"), which is the Japanese year-date for the year 1808 C.E. on the Western calendar; **Surei'cha** — Literally "the one with whom you have a child" and normally translated as "child-mate," this is the person an Avalonian would select to father her child; **Magistra Maximus** — Literally "Supreme Mistress," this is the title for someone who has achieved TWELVE separate magical masteries (this would be seen as the step beyond the NEWT tests in Britain) which are legally recognized by any member state or community of the ICMC (the male version of this title is **Magister Maximus** or "Supreme Master"); **Potentio Mutiplo** — A spell prefix title meant to ensure the spell strikes multiple targets; **Morsmordre Crucio** — An application of the Cruciatus Curse on a Death Eater's Dark Mark (the reason this is done is that the Dark Mark is an _magical construct_…thus, this gets around the whole legal and moral issues of using an Unforgivable on a living person as indicated by Raven and Cassiopeia in the flashback scenes); **Morsmordre Imperio** — An application of the Imperius Curse on a Death Eater's Dark Mark to control the bearer's actions; **-vayae** — Sagussan suffix honorific usually meaning "My Dearest" or other terms of intimate endearment; **dataPADD** — Literally **_data _****_P_****ersonal ****_A_****rchival ****_D_****isplay ****_D_****evice** (the term comes from _Star Trek_, by the way).

3) **Josef Wilhelm ****_Freiherr_**** von Taserich** is an immortal in the same manner as **Hosan Hirosuke** (introduced in the first _Wizards and Avalonians_). His birth-name is unknown to this day; the name he is known by is the Prussian noble name he assumed during the years that kingdom existed on the southeast corner of the Baltic Sea. He was quite older than Master Hosan, having well passed ten thousand years of age when Hosan himself was born five thousand years ago. He was the man who forged the **Übermenschen Gruppe** that was the main team of Axis non-magical metahumans who were active in World War Two. While his fate post-World War Two is a mystery, it is believed he is alive. Like Hosan, Taserich's blood is filled with crystals of ebony meson that effectively made him immortal. He is notorious amongst magicals and other mystics on Earth for allowing other people to be injected with ebony meson into their blood stream to give them metahuman powers. As stated in my other works such as _The Icemaidens and the Philosopher's Stone_ direct exposure to ebony meson will — if one does not have sufficient mental guards (such as a mastery in Legilimency) or has a strong will — drive someone totally insane.

4) Names and locations of the various magical lordships mentioned here:

**The Viscountcy of Barnet** (originally Rodolphus Lestrange) — This is the name of one of the boroughs of Greater London. Modern Barnet was brought together from territory originally governed by the Counties of Middlesex and Hertfordshire in 1965. Barnet itself is located ten kilometres west of north from the City of London.

**The Viscountcy of Saxmundham** (originally Vincent Crabbe Sr.) — This is the name of a small market town in County Suffolk, which is located five kilometres inland from the North Sea coast and thirty-five kilometres east of south from Norwich.

**The Viscountcy of Wolverhampton** (Gregory Goyle) — This is the name of a city in the West Midlands part of England, fifteen kilometres northwest of Birmingham.

**The Barony of Norwich** (Flora Carrow) — This is the name of the county town and largest city of County Norfolk. Norwich is located twenty kilometres from the North Sea coast about a hundred kilometres northeast of London.

**The Viscountcy of Wye** (Libera Meretrice) — This is named after the **River Wye**, which rises in central Wales and empties in the estuary of the River Severn near the city of Bristol. The **Forest of Dean** is bordered on the north and west by the River Wye and on the south by the River Severn.

5) The **Department of Magical Secrecy Control** (short-form **DMSC**) is the modern name of the **Obliviator Headquarters**, which was part of the **Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes** (**DMAC**). In the post-1997 shakeup of the Ministry of Magic, the DMAC was subordinated into the DMLE and streamlined to ensure it could better work with its normal counterparts in the Home Office.

6) It should be noted that stories concerning people such as **Lì Xīshèn**, **Ian Boot**, Ian's wife **Michelle Peakes-Boot** and **Sally Anne Perks**' parents are based on what I created for them in the _Icemaidens_ stories without the influence of the whole Magical Sheriff concept. As I stated in the first _W&A_ story, Magical Sheriffs do not exist in this universe.

7) As Rose Potter is a _Negima_ Meridiana-trained "western mage," her spell to help Harry learn about the prophecy stored in the Department of Mysteries works this way:

**Eien no Ai Ani-sama** (literally "Eternal Love for Elder Brother")  
This is the **activation keyword** that triggers Rose's magic (she uses her desire to finally be united with Harry to give her power to use her magic);

**Mater Scientia, Minerva. Ad Se Me Alliciat** (literally "Minerva, Mother of Knowledge. Let Her Draw Us To Her")  
This serves as the **invocation** to draw on magic and divine influence to seek out the effect needed for the spell; and

**Revelio Prophetia** (literally "Reveal the Prophecy")  
This is the **spell trigger** that actually casts the spell forth.

8) Luna Lovegood being a Seer is pretty much fanon, but I felt it right to bring such a power into play in the flashback scenes here.

9) According to _Negima_ manga canon, Negi Springfield was born in 1993…but since Meridiana has no age restrictions like Hogwarts does to invite people in to study magic, it is possible for people of different ages to be in the same class. Rose, Raven, Cassiopeia, Grace, Charlotte, Ariel and the other Terran-turned-Avalonian magi mentioned here are physically the same age as Harry, Draco and Neville.

10) **Nerio** is my name for the _Mundus Magicus_ introduced in the "Magical World" story arc of _Negima_. As I stated in _Phoenix From the Ashes_ and other stories, I do NOT accept Akamatsu-sensei's idea that Nerio is actually **Mars** under magical disguise. In the universe of this story, Nerio was formed when an asteroid slammed into Mars millions of years ago and literally sheared off half the planet's mass to form another planet. The life-bearing elements that were on Mars at the time were transplanted to Nerio, thus allowing life and magic to develop there. Mars, unfortunately, was rendered lifeless.

As for the "beast-people" who live on the _Mundus Magicus_ such as **Collette Farandole** (who first appeared at the end of the _Negima_ manga story "All Negi's Got" [manga episode #202]), I decided to use the term **therianthrope** (combining two Greek words, _therion_ and _anthrōpos_, respectively meaning "wild animal" and "human being") in the _Icemaidens_ stories to describe people like her. While a therianthrope in the classic sense was a human who could transform into an animal (like the animagus transformation in _Harry Potter_), it struck me as a very nice term that fit people like Collette very well, so I came to use it.

11) Cassiopeia's calling Hogwarts-trained wizards and witches "wand-wavers" is technically incorrect; Meridiana-trained magi also use wands as Negi Springfield and many of his friends show…but the type of magic shown in _Negima_ tends to lend more to what would be seen as "wandless magic" in the _Harry Potter_ universe (which is a very hard skill to acquire), so the insult may have some basis in fact.

12) The **Queen's Royal Regiment (West Surrey)** (**QRR**) was one of the original infantry regiments of the British Army founded after the Restoration of 1660 brought the monarchy back to stay after the years of the Commonwealth under Oliver Cromwell. The second senior line infantry regiment in the Army during its existence, it was initially as "The Earl of Peterborough's Regiment of Foot" a year after King Charles II ascended the throne. The regiment acquired its modern title in 1921 and was amalgamated into the **Queen's Regiment** in 1959. As with the QRR's sister regiment introduced in the first _W&A_ story, the modern Queen's Royal Regiment was reformed by Avalonian-Britons (such as Lucy O'Neill) as an element of the Territorial Army as a reserve unit of troops that could augment its parent regiment when required…and also mobilise new battalions under its own name if called to by higher authority.

As with the Royal Sussex Regiment, the modern version of the Queen's Royal Regiment is split into two battalions. The **1st Battalion, the Queen's Royal Regiment** (**1 QRR**) would be headquartered in Guildford while the **2nd Battalion, the Queen's Royal Regiment** (**2 QRR**) would be headquartered in Tandridge. Unlike the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Sussex, neither battalion of the Queen's Royal Regiment would be given an airborne or airmobile infantry tasking.

13) British prisons are divided into two large classifications: "Open" prisons (where inmates — on approval by the prison authorities — can go home after a set period and show no inclination of escaping custody)…and "Closed" prisons (where inmates are considered likely candidates to escape or are seen as too much of a threat to normal people). Open prisons are also known as **Category D** prisons. Closed prisons are rated from **Category A** for the worst offenders to **Category C** for those who are not trustworthy for an open prison but whose probability of escaping is rated as low. Per this rating system, **H.M. Prison Ford** is a Category D open prison, **H.M. Prison High Down** is a Category B closed prison and **H.M. Prison Bronzefield** is a Category A closed prison.

14) The **Soulsword** (in Japanese, **Kontō**; in Latin, **Animae Gladium**) is, in the universe of my stories, the ultimate martial arts form. Forged of one's very own fighting spirit, the soulsword — I was inspired by the magical weapon introduced in the 1983-84 _Magik_ comics from Marvel — can literally kill on contact when the target is a normal person. When it is a person with a strong will or psionic/magical powers, the target is forced into a coma as his/her spirit is cast out into an astral form; this would grant someone time to allow the astral form to be reinserted back into the body…but there is a time limit for such (as shown in _The Senior Year_ story "Spirit-War Tomobiki"). When it comes to cases of possession or removing the effects of a magical curse, the soulsword literally burns the possessing spirit out of the body. As the curse used on Nymphadora Tonks-Lupin and Neville Longbottom's parents was a form of magical possession to suppress the soul of the target, the soulsword Moroboshi Negako used to free them of that curse literally restored them to life…but since the curse was powered by Bellatrix's living magic, a backlash occurred.


	2. The Odyssey of Bellatrix Lestrange

The borough of Runnymede in Surrey, 5 Privet Drive in Little Whinging (northwest of the M3/M25 interchange near Longside Lake), ten minutes later…

"I still think materialisers are AWESOME!" Ted breathed out.

Winky nodded. "Yes! They move people better than even house elves can!"

Amused chuckles escaped the three adult women — all Avalonian-Britons, of course — in the living room of the O'Neill-Carter residence. Now examining the unmoving Bellatrix was Ellen Bonham, the local healer — she was a qualified paramedic and was performing duties at a local hospital to be accredited as a registered nurse — for the Avalonians living in Runnymede. Her fingers were now pressing into the dazed woman's face as she sent mind-probes into Bellatrix. Watching this were Shelley Carter and Lucy O'Neill. "How bad?" the red-haired, green-eyed part-time infantry soldier quietly asked.

"Her _mei'na_ is horribly fractured," Ellen — a wavy-haired brunette with soft golden-brown eyes — answered. "Possibly a case of multiple-personality disorder. When she was hit with the backlash of whatever Thoughtmistress-prime Negako did to whoever she was magically linked to, it destroyed some elements of her personality…"

"Which is what a soulsword can do," Lucy mused. "If the Thoughtmistress-prime was here to help Ted's mum and the parents of Harry's friend get up, why didn't people ask for her to stick around to help find this woman when she fled the hospital?"

"Magical blindness when it comes to getting non-magical help," Shelley noted as she squeezed her lover's shoulder. "Remember what Charlotte told us about how people like her parents are always willing to dismiss anything normals do?"

"Until _Hood_ came along," Lucy noted.

The others in the room snickered, even Ted and Maggie; they were seated on one of the chairs across from the sofa where Bellatrix was now laid out. Winky was standing by the coffee table, staring intently at the unconscious witch and ready to do anything to defend her younger charges and the wonderful Space Angels from harm. Also present was Tufty, who had been adopted by Lucy and Shelley; he was now on the coffee table gazing intently at the unconscious witch that was taking the other people's attention. Finally, Ellen took a deep breath as she pulled her hand away. "I'm authorizing a body-swap."

The others gazed on her. "Would she still be a danger?" Shelley asked.

"Even if she is a danger in the future, given what I've seen of her so far — the combination of all the magical oaths, tortures and everything else she's been subjected to, PLUS her being struck down by Molly Weasley and Grace Longbottom like she was back in '97 AND having parts of her mind destroyed by a soulsword backlash — I have no right to deny her a chance to live a NORMAL life if it's in my power to save her, Shelley," Ellen answered. "Yes, there are still the memories of the people she's killed and tortured over the years in there. Yes, they'll transfer over into a new body. But thanks to what Thoughtmistress-prime Negako inadvertently did to her some nights ago, there's next to no emotional connection to those memories." She smirked. "No different at all…"

"Than what Harry asked you to do for Project V," Shelley finished for the healer.

"Right."

"'Project V?'" Ted asked.

Winky shushed him. "Don't ask, Master Teddy! It's a secret!"

He jerked as Maggie snickered…

* * *

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (on the north shore of Loch Eigheach west of Kinloch Rannoch in the Council Area of Perth and Kinross, Scotland), before lunch…

"_Examinamus! Examinamus! Examinamus! Examinamus…!_"

As the two mini-Rose Potters with cherub's wings floated around the head of Ginny Weasley, Harry's sister was busy tapping things on the scrying pentagram now floating before the youngest Weasley child's face. Ginny's new wife and her mother were standing behind her, staying clear of the examination spirits Rose forged with her magic to examine the newest magically-powered Terran-turned-Avalonian to have awoken on Earth; Rose had visited her sisters-in-law and Dora Lupin at Grimmauld Place late on Sunday evening to look them over. Watching this from nearby was Poppy Pomfrey and Rose's own teacher in the ways of magical healing Nerio-style, Master Healer Elaine Buckshire of Ariadne. Also present was Rose's classmate from magical health services school in the famous independent academic city on the _Mundus Magicus_ — and the wife/bond-mate of one of Negi Springfield's former English students at Mahora, Ayase Yūe — Collette Farandole. Watching the reborn spirit of one of the unborn babies that would have been denied life thanks to the First Purification War, Frank and Alice Longbottom found themselves turning to stare from time to time at the visiting therianthropes from Nerio, their eyes locking in on Elaine's mountain goat-like ram horns mounted on the side of her head and the sheep-like tapered ears…not to mention Collette's long dog-like ears and wagging tail.

Noting this from nearby, Neville Longbottom sighed. "Mum! Dad!" he hissed at them. "It's rude to stare at them like that, for Merlin's sake!"

His parents jerked on hearing that, and then flustered as Collette and Elaine both smirked. "I am sorry about that, Elaine," Poppy then said. "After all…"

"Studies of our world were not permitted when your 'ministry of morons' still had influence on the school's academic curriculum," Elaine finished as her soft gold eyes twinkled with mirth. "Don't worry about it, Poppy. At least the young lambs you're looking after here now are learning the truth. Maybe one day, you can arrange for class trips to Ariadne and allow the same to come from there here to Hogwarts."

"The stalebloods in the Ministry wouldn't allow that, Elaine," Rose warned.

"Not yet, of course," Neville noted.

"Oh? What have you heard?" Molly Weasley asked.

"Kingsley warned me that 'Mione and Daphne are on a crusade to see if the Treaty of Ynys Môn can be renegotiated," the current Marquess of Holdenhurst — due to Frank being in St. Mungo's with no sign of recovery at the time Neville achieved adulthood, the older man had been passed over and could not reclaim the seat from his son — explained. "I think it can, but it wouldn't really need any changes to the Treaty. It's all the stupid laws the Wizengamot passed after the Treaty that need to be looked at."

"What about the preference of Meridiana students wanting to seek out muggles to form pactios with?" Alice asked. "They've done that for years without any controls…"

"Mum, there ARE controls!" Neville cut her off. "You wouldn't see mages from Meridiana making pactios willy-nilly with every normal that passes them by." He ignored Collette's smirk on saying that; he knew the story of how many pactios Negi Springfield had made — including the one to Collette's wife — when he was but a child at the turn of the millennium and forced to deal with all sorts of magical incidents at the Mahora Academy. "Besides, pactios are normally forged with people who have great magical potential even if it didn't properly awaken to see them invited to here or Meridiana." To Collette. "Healer Farandole, did your wife undergo the Neuwied Test?"

"She did," Collette stated as her pale green eyes sparkled with delight. "It was administered in secret just when Master Springfield was assigned as her homeroom teacher at Mahora in 2002 after graduating from basic magical training at Meridiana. The first test gave Yūe a score of 133 points…but unlike those who would attend this school, she didn't have the proper genetic trigger to learn magic. Only when she started interacting with Master Springfield and was exposed to his own magical aura did that trigger assert itself and allow her to become a mage in her own right. Her last Neuwied Test gave her a score of 306 points." She smirked. "Of course, that was after she was made an Avalonian herself thanks to the Lady Negako two months ago when she went to Mahora to obtain her beloved's body from storage and free Evangeline McDowell from her vampiric illnesses and her being stuck physically as a ten year-old child for so long."

The older Longbottoms cringed on hearing the birth name of the infamous _Maga Nosferatu_, a dark lady seen to be as evil as Voldemort and Tsukuyomi in the eyes of most European magicals of any stripe. "Why would the Earth Angel do that?!" Frank asked.

"Dad, do you think the Lady Evangeline liked the idea of being turned into a day-walker vampire and be frozen at TEN YEARS OF AGE all those centuries ago?!" Neville demanded.

Frank jolted, and then he flustered. "W-well…"

"And I thought I had it bad," Ginny whispered.

"Stay quiet, Ginny," Rose advised.

The youngest Weasley clammed up. Finally, the two mini-Roses stopped as they produced a magical parchment titled _**Reportata**_. "_Nothing wrong!_" both of them chanted.

Rose sighed as she dispersed the pentagram and the mini-Roses that personified her special magical probe spells. "Well, your magic is fully meshed in with your new body," Harry's sister said with a smile. "If you were like me during the whole thing with the Chamber of Secrets, that soul-fragment of the Dark Dunderhead wouldn't have been able to possess you from that diary Raven's father slipped into your carryall bag in Diagon before your first year started. And you certainly…"

"Might have landed your brother — or you in _marei'cha_ when we first met in the Department of Mysteries — as my soul-mate," Ginny finished with a grin, and then she leaned back to allow Nell to embrace her from behind. "It still hurts a bit…but I now have a wife who loves me and I love in turn, so I can get over it, Rose. Please, it's alright."

"Would you still desire to request Big Brother to sire any children?" Rose asked.

Ginny gaped as Molly's, Alice's and Frank's jaws dropped in shock. "I would, Healer Potter," the youngest Weasley stated formally as she pulled away from Nell to focus her attention on Harry's sister. "But given that your wonderful brother — whom I still feel I owe a Life Debt to because of the incident in the Chamber of Secrets — is married and must father children with his beloved wives, I can wait."

"So be it then," Rose said with a nod. "I am authorized by my brother to state that he feels it wise that both you and your wife should wait until after your wife's transfer off Her Majesty's Starship _Hood_ at the end of her first post-training posting aboard that vessel before offering himself as the sire of any future children for you."

The youngest Weasley child nodded. "I can agree to that. Nell-vayae?"

"It is logical and rational," Nell stated. "It is agreed, Potter-i'sagh."

Rose nodded. "So be it, then."

"Is that legal?!"

Neville sighed. "Dad, Rose is part of Harry's family and is seen as his heir apparent to the headship of his family even if she can't — at this time — take up the family seat in the Wizengamot," he stated. "The only real restrictions when it comes to any sort of commerce between a Meridiana alumnus like Rose — or Grace! — and anyone in our society is the fact that Rose can't take control of anything that is controlled or influenced by the Ministry of Magic. That's why she can't have a Gringotts vault and has to bank with the Bank of Ariadne at their branch near Meridiana. Ditto with Grace and the other girls Master Holmes saved all those years ago. What just happened here was an arrangement between members of two magical families. The laws concerning requesting to sire predate the Ministry, so it's alright for Rose to negotiate that on Harry's behalf. Grace has my permission to do that for me." He shook his head. "My God! Was THAT the type of society you were trying to save back in the 1970s?!"

The older Longbottoms winced on hearing that from their son, and then they warily watched as Neville walked out of the hospital wing. Watching her old friends from the Order of the Phoenix, Molly sighed. "It was hard for us to adjust to all the changes, too," she said as she walked over to join Frank and Alice. "It's for the best, you know. As long as the old structures and the old beliefs are still allowed to have life, we'll be dealing with another dark lord in a few decades. I don't want that and my children certainly don't want it either. That's why they think as they do now."

Alice sighed. "It's been hard, Molly," she admitted. "Yes, we were just overjoyed to know our girl was given life even after Bella and her family struck us down…" She shook her head. "But to see her go to Meridiana…and then be trained by HER?!"

"What's wrong with Mistress Tsukuyomi?!"

Eyes locked on Collette. "Healer Farandole, you don't know what she did!" Frank said.

"I DO know what Mistress Tsukuyomi did!" the canine therianthrope — to call someone like her a "beast-girl" was seen as insulting to someone like Collette as being called "mudblood" was to Hermione Granger — from Ariadne stated. "I don't think YOU know what your Ministry's colonial branches did in places like India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Burma, Malaysia or Singapore…to say anything of what the French and the Dutch did elsewhere across southeast Asia. Thank the Fates that the Americans were willing to allow the native Filipinos the right to practice their own magic, as did the Japanese for the Koreans and the Taiwanese in the first half of the last century!" She shook her head. "It's because of that 'I know better' attitude that Voldemort came into being, not to mention Grindelwald and every other dark lord your society has created over the centuries. I'm not saying we're any better on Nerio, but at least we try to improve ourselves every chance we get. You haven't done that for years…"

"Makes me wonder if the Statute of Secrecy was any good in the long term."

"Amen to that," Collette stated as she smiled at Rose.

Alice and Frank just _stared_ at them as Molly shook her head…

* * *

International Space Factory Station Europa (in geostationary orbit 35,786 kilometres above the Equator at the meridian of Luxembourg City), that moment (central European summer time: lunchtime)…

"I came as soon as you called me."

Shelley and Lucy smiled as both moved to embrace Harry, and then he knelt down to draw his cousin into his arms; Ted had been returned to Grimmauld Place by Winky. "We're having the body for Cassiopeia's mother prepared right now," Shelley stated as they walked into one of the gestation chambers in this former Niphentaxian factory satellite that had been claimed by the Avalonians in February as "war booty" and transported to Earth. These days, the European Union — through the European Space Agency — administered ISFS Europa as one of three geostationary and six lunar-orbital stations for the manufacture of equipment for the governments of the various member-nations. The Avalonians, of course, also set up gestation units and storage areas for non-templated bioroid bodies on Europa to serve as a safe and quick place to allow body-swaps to occur; despite the very low number of potential xenophobes in Europe who might want to hurt the "angels of the stars," the recent incident with U.S.S. _Arizona_ graphically illustrated what could happen if some idiot managed to get through all the defences to cause damage or casualties.

"What did Ellen say about Bellatrix's mental state?" Harry asked.

"She's really messed up in her head, Harry…and has been for decades," Lucy stated, a tired sigh escaping her. "Thoughtmistress-prime Negako managed to burn most of it away by proxy when she helped restore Dora and Neville's parents, but the memories of what she did while serving under Thoughtmaster-prime Riddle will still be there. Very little in the way of emotional content with those memories, which means…"

He breathed out. "She won't feel any guilt over all the damage she caused."

"Yes. While she could now be reformed — with the right sort of family support, of course — if she's confronted by any of her past victims…"

Harry nodded. Much that many people in wizarding Britain — Neville and his parents being three of them — would howl for Bellatrix's head on a silver platter to see her answer for her crimes as a Death Eater, Ellen Bonham was bound by her healer's oaths to do all to preserve the woman's life since she had been critically wounded at the Battle of Hogwarts by Molly Weasley and Grace Longbottom. That had gone down just as Rose Potter and Neville had killed Nagini with a combination of a soulsword from Harry's sister — she had learned that deadly technique from Yomigawa Tsukiko after her graduation from Meridiana — and a magical katana loaned by Grace to her brother. After that, Harry used a version of the Spirit-Breaker Fire-Light attack from Saikō Jinseijutsu-ryū to sever all links between Voldemort and his last horcrux in the Lestrange vault in Gringotts before using the soulsword to destroy the magical body created for him at the end of the Triwizard Tournament in 1995. And while Harry himself often believed that Bellatrix's final removal from this life would do so much good, he had rules to obey; any wizard and witch accused of crimes that had been injured had to be healed before facing justice.

To short-circuit THAT would be the first step in returning everything back to the bad old days that had ultimately killed Sirius Black.

That couldn't be allowed under any circumstances.

"How soon will she be awake and can be questioned?" he wondered.

"About another half-hour," Lucy advised.

"Okay. It'll give me time to make some calls."

With that, he headed off…

* * *

A half-hour later…

"Where am I…?"

"Ah! You're awake!"

The newly-created bioroid blinked in confusion before sitting up, and then she turned to gaze on a pretty girl dressed in muggle clothes with a white knee-length tunic slung over her. "Who are you?" Bellatrix Lestrange asked.

"I'm Ellen Bonham," the newcomer introduced herself. "I'm an apprentice nurse working at Ashford Hospital in Surrey, just outside London. I was called in by friends of your grandnephew Ted Lupin after you teleported yourself into your old bedroom at 12 Grimmauld Place in Islington in the wake of you fleeing from St. Mungo's Hospital after nearly being killed thanks to three cases of soulsword backlash you suffered on Friday and Saturday. Today is Tuesday the thirteenth of July in 2010, Mrs. Lestrange."

Bellatrix took a moment to absorb that. "You're a mediwitch?"

"I'm a metahuman by your standards," Ellen answered.

She considered that for a few seconds. While the number of non-magical metahumans was not known — and the Ministry of Magic always refused to go look for such people as such was beyond its purview — the Death Eaters always feared confronting someone like that. "Why are you interested in me? To say anything of Nymphadora's son?"

Ellen sighed. "Like the victims of your interesting living-death curse, you've missed a lot in the last thirteen years, Mrs. Lestrange. Let me show you what I mean…"

Her fingers then touched the side of Bellatrix's face…

* * *

Minutes later…

"I'm not sure how I'm going to break this to Dad and Mum, Harry."

"Are you saying Ellen should have let her die?"

"Hell, no!" Neville stated with a shake of the head. He had just beamed aboard Europa from Hogwarts after Harry called him on his cell phone…which had been developed by a Korean-Briton housemate of theirs from their year at Hogwarts, Mun Aesup, the woman who had become Britain's first true technomage after studying in America in the wake of her graduating from Hogwarts in 1998. "Her oaths aren't magically binding, but Grace told me what Avalonian healers have to go through to serve as such. Ellen would have had to do everything to save Bellatrix. As much as Poppy or Rose would."

Harry smirked. "How are your parents reacting to Grace?"

A sigh escaped his former housemate. "It's a see-saw, Harry," Neville admitted. "On the one hand, they're happy as all heck that their daughter is alive; Mum told Dad she was pregnant just before the Lestranges and Barty Crouch attacked the house." He shook his head. "But Grace went to Meridiana and was trained by Tsukiko-sensei. And that just won't do!"

A groan escaped the Man-Who-Won. "Idiots…"

"Harry?"

Both men turned as Ellen came up. The healer was quick to note the presence of Harry's former housemate. "How is she?" Harry then asked as both stood.

"She's in a bit of a state of shock right now," Ellen stated with a smirk.

"Oh, Merlin!" Neville moaned. "Wake up and then find out that you're now an _**alien**_ of all things!"

"Yeah, that would hit hard, wouldn't it?" Harry stated. "Can we see her?"

Ellen gazed with concern at Neville. The Marquess of Holdenhurst took a deep breath. "I have to confront it sooner or later," he confessed. "Shall we, Harry?"

Harry nodded. Both men walked out of the lounge to the recovery room where Bellatrix had been taken after her body-swap. Stepping inside, they were quick to note the older woman cowering in her bed, shivering with fright as she seemed to want to do everything to make herself as small as possible. Noting that, Harry sighed. According to Ted, Dora had acted the same way at first after awakening in her new body Friday evening aboard _Hood_. "It's alright, Mrs. Lestrange," he then said, making her head snap over to stare wide-eyed at the man who had defeated and destroyed her master. "You're not the only witch who's undergone this sort of thing. It comes with the territory."

She blinked as a faint hint of outrage came up from somewhere in her heart…before that faded into confusion. Wasn't she supposed to hate these people for fighting against her master? Why couldn't she hate them? "Potter. Longbottom."

"How are you?" Harry wondered as they moved to sit in chairs close to the bed she was now reclined on. "Have you had something to eat yet?"

She sighed. "They're getting some sort of fruit milkshake for me to have. I can't have solid foods for two days because this…" A shudder then seized her body. "I'm an _alien_…?!"

"No. You're still human, Mrs. Lestrange." A pause, and then Neville added, "Right now, you're no different than Harry's sister Rose or my sister Grace." He then lightly smirked. "To say anything of your own daughter Cassiopeia."

Bellatrix gazed at him. "Impossible!"

"Her soul was saved by the Curse of Hufflepuff," Neville explained. "I didn't believe it at first when we met Rose in the Hall of Prophecy that night, but after I had a chance to meet Grace — she was performing temple maiden duties at the shrine where the Lady Tsukuyomi lives these days in Japan at the time we fought in the Department of Mysteries — and mind-meld with her, I learned the Curse of Hufflepuff is real. And that it saved the lives of many unborn magical children Voldemort and his people — including you — guaranteed would never see life through natural means."

She took a moment to absorb that, and then she breathed out. "Who did it?"

"It was ultimately instigated by an observer — an explorer — from a planet named Phentax Two; it's fifty light-years from Earth, orbiting the upper star of that three-star system in Cancer the Astronomy professors loved to make us look at when we were at Hogwarts taking classes." As Bellatrix smirked on remembering that, Harry sighed. "There is a humanoid race that lives on that world. Incredibly imitative but denied the ability to create their own distinct culture. They discovered Earth years ago and were just fascinated by it. Steve Holmes — that was the observer's Earth alias; his native name is a mystery — was one of many observers sent here to watch over us; he was based in Manchester. Along the way, he brought a hundred non-templated bioroid bodies — they're known as 'Avalonians' as a people — to have with him in case he needed deep cover agents to help him in his observations. One became his daughter Alice. She was the one who found your unborn daughter's spirit drifting near your family home in London sometime in 1983. The spirit was captured and — with a quick scan of yours and your husband's genetic structure even if you were in Azkaban at the time; the technology Alice had could detect places made unplottable by magic — a bioroid body was created to house that spirit."

"Cassiopeia," she whispered.

"Yes. Alice was able to communicate with one of your old house elves to learn that was a name you wanted to give your daughter before she 'died.'"

Bellatrix considered that, and then she closed her eyes. "It's not there."

"We know," Neville breathed out. "That's what made it so easy for Cass to hurt you like she did when we fought over the prophecy concerning Harry and Voldemort. She's an empath. She couldn't sense any motherly love from you. All she sensed of you was the being all the things Healer Bonham discovered when she examined you earlier today made you become over the years since you started attending Hogwarts in 1962."

"A monster."

He nodded. "Yes."

The Dowager Viscountess of Barnet — Rabastan was killed by Cassiopeia in the Department of Mysteries during the fighting in the Death Chamber; Rodolphus would die at the Battle of Hogwarts a year later thanks to Pansy Parkinson in vengeance over what he had done to her parents earlier that summer — seemed to deflate into a melancholy acceptance. There was no avoiding asking this now: "Are you here to arrest me?"

"In a short while," Harry admitted.

She gazed at the Man-Who-Won, and then she smirked. "Why the hell weren't you a Slytherin, Harry?" she demanded. "You sure as hell are acting like one now."

Neville laughed on hearing that. "The Hat actually wanted to put me there, Aunt Bella," Harry admitted, making her blush on hearing him call her that. "But I had been told by Hagrid and Ron Weasley beforehand about how 'evil' Slytherin was…and I also had the profound displeasure of running across your nephew Draco Malfoy a couple times before the Sorting ceremony." As she nodded, he added, "I rather wish I did take up that offer to become a Slytherin. These days, I have many friends from that house, both from my year and younger years. One of my wives — Pansy Parkinson — was one."

She perked. "Malcolm's and Gruoch's daughter?"

He nodded. "The same. She had to become an Avalonian, too. Many years ago, Uncle Malcolm and my father negotiated a marriage contract between us. Since I was never warned ahead of time before I renounced it, Pansy wound up a squib until Friday…when the Earth Angel arranged for her and my other wife, Mandy Brocklehurst of Ravenclaw, to become Avalonians. Right after your niece Dora became one. And Lady Negako…"

"The soulsword. I know." She then sighed. "By the way…thank you."

Harry perked. "For what?"

"Killing the Carrows," Bellatrix admitted. "Much that I — when I was able to think straight — loathed the man she chose to marry, I didn't want Andromeda to die."

"Would you have arranged a fatal accident to happen to them?" Neville wondered.

A devilish smirk then crossed her face. "Eventually!"

Neville nodded in acceptance of that, which made Bellatrix gaze at him for a moment before she turned back to Harry. "So what do you have in mind?" she asked.

He sighed. "Aunt Bella, do you remember in the Department of Mysteries? Just after Albus arrived and Raven made her father kill Dolohov?"

Her eyes went wide…

* * *

_Level Nine of the Headquarters of Her Majesty's Ministry of Magic, Tuesday 18 June 1996, a half-hour before sunset… _

_"Why are you here, Tsukiko?" Albus Dumbledore demanded as many of the members of the Order of the Phoenix took fearful steps back from the walking nightmare in white-and-red who was now in their midst…and clearly interested in Harry Potter and his friends given what her young apprentices had done to the Death Eaters. "You…!" _

_"_**COWARDS!**_" _

_Eyes locked on the shivering man who was now standing up from the floor, his hand still grasping that of his sister's. "Harry…!" Hermione Granger gasped. _

_Looking around, the Boy-Who-Lived glared at the people who had come to this place to intercept the Death Eaters…and then he spat out onto the floor. "You damned cowards!" he hissed out. "Where in the name of God _were_ you people while we were here busy fighting these staleblood, inbred morons and trying to save that stupid prophecy you've been guarding for the last YEAR, huh?!" As people gaped in shock at him — though Alastor Moody was nodding in approval — Harry shook his head. "I wish to hell that I had never accepted that invitation to go to Hogwarts in the first place!" As many of the people hearing this all gasped in horror, he hissed out, "If you people are supposedly the BEST that a Hogwarts education can offer, why the HELL were ladies like my SISTER ready to help us defeat these idiots?!" He waved to the fallen Death Eaters nearby. "Is it because you're all jealous of the fact that people from _Meridiana_ are better magicals THAN ALL OF YOU?! HUH?!" He then glared at Albus, his eyes flashing as all the rage and anger he had felt deep in his heart for years finally came roaring to the surface. "Don't bother with the Prophecy anymore, _Mister_ Dumbledore! I already know its contents! Thanks to your constant refusal to tell me things, my godfather is now _dead_!" He pointed at the Veil before sneering. "I refuse to be a sacrifice anymore for a backward and worthless society like this!" _

_As people croaked out on hearing THAT, the ghostly sound of someone clapping his hands echoed from the main hallway. "Well done, Harry! Well done…!" _

_Harry blinked, and then he advanced for the main door. Albus moved to intercept him, but found himself blocked by Yomigawa Tsukiko's arm. As Rose followed him out of the Death Chamber into the main hall, they gazed towards the pale, bald figure in the dark robes at one end of the room, close to the main exit. "Tom," Harry called out. _

_Voldemort smirked, though he didn't rise to the bait the Boy-Who-Lived made by calling him by birth name. "So you finally figured it out, didn't you?" the Dark Lord mused as he crossed his arms. "Amazing that it actually required the intrusion of a dark lord even _**I**_ would be frightened of to finally let the truth out!" With that, he rose to bow respectfully as Tsukiko emerged from the Death Chamber. "Lady Tsukuyomi! Welcome back to Great Britain! I trust my followers were properly respectful of you!" _

_"They weren't truly respectful, Voldemort-dono," the Dark Lady of the Orient stated as she gazed in amusement at him. "Still, even if your fight with Harry-kun doesn't really concern me, the patience of the International Conference of Magical Communities in concerns with your society's inability to evolve has come to a final end." She then smirked on hearing rushed footsteps from the upper gallery behind her. "Good evening, Minister Fudge," she called out as she gazed at a wide-eyed man now gaping in horror at the presence of not ONE but TWO dark lords in the bowels of the headquarters complex of the ministry he led. "As you can see, my new apprentice was not lying last year." _

_"NO!" _

_As Cornelius Fudge sputtered in horror on seeing both Voldemort AND Tsukuyomi in the main hall of the Department of Mysteries, Tsukiko turned to gaze on Albus. "You are no longer Headmaster of Hogwarts, Albus," she warned. "Even more so, since you are no longer headmaster, you cannot be Harry-kun's _in loco parentis_ legal guardian. And after he goes to Gringotts to claim his inheritance from the House of Potter AND the House of _Black_, he will be magically_ emancipated_. Since he has done your basic magical tests, he can withdraw from Hogwarts once and for all time. Which he is ready to do!" _

_Albus shuddered as he levelled his wand at her… _

_…and then screamed out as a blazing blade of energy ripped through the wand, causing it to explode in his hand. As he staggered back and gripped his bleeding hand, the others in the Order save Moody scrambled back, many of them pale in horror at the thought of facing the Dark Lady of the Orient…who was clearly in full battle trim and ready for a brawl. As Albus stared at Tsukiko, she shook her head. "«The Deathly Hallows are no more, Albus-kun,»" she whispered in Japanese, which she knew he fluently understood. "«Be thankful that I was willing to do at least _that_ for you!»" _

_"ARREST HER!" Fudge screamed out. _

_"_STUPEFY!_" _

_Heads snapped over as jaws dropped in disbelief. "Percy?!" Arthur Weasley gasped. _

_Lowering his wand, Percy Weasley sighed before nodding at Harry, and then he smiled on seeing Rose beside him. Noting that — and sensing Bellatrix slip out of the Death Chamber as she moved to get close to Voldemort so they could stand together against the forces arrayed against them — Tsukiko sighed as she allowed her soulsword to disperse. "«Rose. Remove that thing from your brother's forehead, if you don't mind,»" she then instructed in Japanese. _

_"Hai!" Rose said before barking out, "_ANIMAE GLADIUM!_" _

_A blazing crusader sword of energy literally GREW out of the palm of her right hand, and then she dropped back from Harry as she swung it right at his forehead. "_**HARRY!**_" Hermione screamed out as she moved to stun Rose… _

_…before a powerful burst of magic exploded from Harry's scar as the sword tip made contact with it, making Voldemort scream in agony as he dropped to his knees. "_**MY LORD!**_" Bellatrix cried out before she lunged towards him. As a half-dozen wands fired a whole storm of curses her way, she stabbed the hidden portkey in the Dark Lord's robes with her wand to make them both vanish from the Department of Mysteries seconds before she would have been struck down. The bolts of energy fired by Harry's friends and Moody simply wrecked the main doors leading into the lobby by the main elevators to the other parts of the Ministry complex. _

_On seeing that, Neville Longbottom snapped, "_**SHIT!**_" _

_"Don't worry, lad," Moody rumbled. "We were too distracted by whatever this kind lass just ripped out of Potter's forehead that hurt that bastard Voldemort so badly!" He then stomped over to gaze intently at the place where the most famous curse scar in British magical history had been with his magical eye. It was now a pale pink in shade, the skin healing. "Damn!" he breathed out before gazing on Rose. "Nice cut!" _

_"Thank you, Uncle Alastor!" Harry's sister said with a grin as she dispersed her soulsword. _

_He perked. "'Uncle Alastor?!'" _

_"She's Harry's long-lost sister, Professor Moody, um…" _

_"Rose Potter," Harry's sister introduced herself with a bow of her head. _

_Many of the people in the room nodded in return, surprised to learn that the Boy-Who-Lived actually had a SISTER. Luna Lovegood — who had moved to introduce Rose — then tucked her wand behind her left ear. "Saved by the Curse of Helga Hufflepuff, as were Tsukuyomi-sama's other apprentices with us this evening." As many of the members of the Order gaped in shock on hearing that, she pointed to the platinum blonde and her dark-haired companion standing by the doorway to the Death Chamber. "That's…" _

_"Raven Malfoy," Draco's twin introduced herself. _

_"I'm Cassiopeia Lestrange," Bellatrix's young look-alike then stated. _

_"Where trained?" Percy asked after he came down from the gantry. _

_"Meridiana," Tsukiko answered. _

_The third-oldest Weasley perked on hearing that, and then he hummed. "I see…" _

_"They should be arrested!" a voice snapped from above. _

_"Dawlish, shut the hell up!" Percy snapped as he glared at John Dawlish, who had been serving as Fudge's bodyguard for most of the year. "All those who are the Lady Tsukuyomi's apprentices were granted full diplomatic immunity by the ICMC, as was the Lady Tsukuyomi herself! If you can't wake up to Reality, I'll have your badge!" _

_As Dawlish croaked on hearing that threat, the members of Percy's family present at the time — his father, his three younger brothers Fred, George and Ron and younger sister Ginny — gaped in awe at the stern words spoken by the former Head Boy of Hogwarts from two years before. Percy sighed before gazing on the Dark Lady of the Orient, bowing his head respectfully at her. "May I humbly ask, Lady Tsukuyomi, what rank your apprentices hold at this time?" _

_"They are all ranked as discipula magi, Percy-dono. All graduated from Meridiana a year ago before they were magically apprenticed to me. They would be the equal of those from Hogwarts who have passed their OWL examinations," Tsukiko stated. "As they are still British citizens and relatives of those your ministry serves as the magical government for, I will publicly release information on their being ranked as magistra magi to the International Conference." _

_"I look forward to reading that one day," Percy said with a nod and a knowing smirk before he gazed on Harry, who was now being comforted by Rose as he silently wept for the loss of a godfather he hardly knew…and now never would know. "What about Harry?" he whispered. _

_"Harry-kun will make a choice once he is fully informed of his choices," she vowed as she turned to glance towards Albus, who was being tended to by Nymphadora Tonks and Hestia Jones. "And he is allowed to become the master of his destiny." _

_Percy looked…and then he smiled. "Fair enough."_

* * *

"A _horcrux_…?!"

Harry nodded. "Tom ultimately made seven of them," he explained. "His goal originally was six, plus his own soul. But when he tried to kill me in 1981, his soul was already so mangled, a fragment of him was lodged in my curse scar; he originally intended for that part of him to be placed inside Nagini. I don't think he ever realized that I was one of his soul-anchors." He pointed to his now-clear forehead in emphasis. "Some who've researched this think he may have made a possible eighth one when he possessed Quirinus Quirrell back in my first year, but others disagree."

Bellatrix shuddered; as a daughter of the House of Black and married into the House of Lestrange, she knew about the blackest forms of the Dark Arts quite well. "He actually _**split his soul apart**_?!" she spat out before blinking. "The Cup…"

"Yes. Your daughter can't claim it since she's a Meridiana graduate and cannot access the family vault in Gringotts. The goblins can't remove it since it would be breaking banker-client privilege even if a horcrux is a dark object and would not be normally allowed in the bank. Since it's clearly obvious you didn't know of this, they can't assess any penalty fees. If they did, they could be accused of breaking the clauses of various treaties, which they will not do. The only good news is that the Cup is intact and we can extract the soul fragment within it out without destroying it. As it is a Founder's Artifact, your holding it in safe keeping is a point in your favour."

"We can't let the idea of horcruxi get out, though," Neville added.

She nodded. "You'd be crazy to do that," she admitted. "Most dark families would NEVER deal in those things! Especially not go all the way to make SEVEN of them, for Merlin's sake!" A disgusted snort then escaped her. "Master, you _**idiot**_…what possessed you to do _**that**_?!"

"That's why we need your help getting the Cup," Harry stated. "I don't intend to have the spirit of Voldemort vanish forever from this life, not without extracting every last bit of information about who his victims were and what he did in the years between his graduation from Hogwarts and his founding the Knights of Walpurgis." That group was the forerunner of the Death Eaters. "History demands no less, Aunt Bella."

"You're going to make him like me?" she asked.

He nodded. "Yes. Because there was a subtle magical link between Voldemort and all his horcruxi, when Rose used a soulsword to get rid of the one in me — then did the same thing to Nagini in the fight at Hogwarts just before I destroyed Voldemort's body to finish it all off — whatever is in the Cup will be probably in the same mental shape you are." A sigh then escaped him. "One thing Professor Dumbledore passionately believed in all those years since he fought his old lover in World War Two was in the hope that all could be redeemed if given a chance. Even if there were many things he did that hurt me from the day Tom tried to kill me in 1981, I know Albus did care for me and wanted me to survive what the prophecy ultimately forced on me." As Bellatrix gave him a surprised look, he smirked. "He believed Tom would have had to strike me down with a killing curse since he used my blood to give him a new body in '95 after the Triwizard. By striking me down, he not only would destroy the magical protection my mother's sacrifice gave me when she died — which he inherited in the ritual that gave him a new body years later — it also would destroy the horcrux inside my scar."

"And not permanently kill Harry," Neville added. "Rose kind of short-circuited that."

"And showed us another means by which to destroy the other horcruxi. One of which was actually discovered by Regulus Black before he died in '79 and had hidden in Grimmauld Place by Kreacher," Harry continued. As Bellatrix gasped on hearing _that_ about her favourite cousin, he smiled. "Destroying that was my first try with a soulsword."

Hearing that, she hummed. "Damn…!" she breathed out. "_Four_ soulsword strikes?! I only thought you needed just _one_ to ultimately kill someone!"

Both men then laughed before Harry sighed. "When this is all over with, you will be tried before the Wizengamot. I will personally — due to the mitigating circumstances because of what happened to you thanks in part to the Lady Negako — recommend exile from Britain for a hundred years." As she tensed, he winked. "I think sending you to Mahora in Japan — where you can apprentice under the Lady Evangeline — would be the right sort of thing for a well-experienced, combat-trained hitwitch like you."

Watching her, Neville was quick to note that the look on Bellatrix's face on hearing Harry's proposal to have her meet _**Evangeline McDowell**_ of all people. To every young witch of the dark-aligned families in the British Isles, the _Maga Nosferatu_ was seen as the greatest magical heroine and role-model of all time, standing heads-and-shoulders above even Arthur Pendragon's half-sister Morgan le Fay. To learn she could become _**her**_ apprentice made Bellatrix look as if she was a little girl who had just discovered that Santa was real…and that she was on the list of those children who were _nice_.

_Go figure!_ the Marquess of Holdenhurst mused to himself…

* * *

The City of Westminster in London, near the Diagon Alley branch of the International Mercantile Bank of Gringotts, three hours later…

"**_OH, MY GOD! IT'S BELLATRIX LESTRANGE!_**"

Gasps and screams of horror escaped many of the people in the Alley on seeing the infamous witch…which soon died on their noting who was now on either side of her, both holding one of her arms, their wands at the ready in their free hands. On noting that Voldemort's most dangerous fighter had been subdued by both Harry Potter and Neville Longbottom, the cries of fright soon turned to cheers of joy.

"**_SILENCE!_**"

Everyone froze in place on hearing that ear-splitting _Sonorus_-enhanced shout from the Man-Who-Won. On looking his way, many cringed on seeing the annoyed look on his face. "**_THERE WILL BE NO DEMONSTRATIONS! NO CHEERING!_**" he snarled out. "**_THE DOWAGER LADY LESTRANGE SURRENDERED TO US HONOURABLY AND OF HER FREE WILL! _****IS — THAT — CLEAR****_?!_**"

People gasped on hearing that — realizing that Harry would NOT tolerate petty acts of vengeance against his prisoner; the director of the DMLE had won a hard reputation for fairness equal to that of Amelia Bones from over a decade before — and then many rapidly nodded their heads before they backed away and opened a path before the two wizards and their present captive. As they moved towards Gringotts, they were immediately joined by Fred and George Weasley, who had stepped out of their shop to act as additional bodyguards for Bellatrix. Reaching the steps of Gringotts, Harry let Bellatrix's arm go with a polite smile before bowing to the sentinels. "Good warriors, forgive this humble customer for mishandling a fellow customer before the walls of your noble establishment. She has surrendered to us honourably and wishes to conduct one last act of business within your noble establishment before she is taken into custody. On behalf of Her Majesty the Queen, I request under the clauses of the Treaty of 1779 that we be allowed to bring her within your noble establishment with drawn wands."

Both guardians bowed politely. "Lord Potter, if you and your friends will wait for a minute, we will provide guards for your prisoner while you are within Gringotts," the one to Harry's left proposed.

Harry bowed in return. "It is agreed."

The doors then snapped open as a sextet of goblin warriors marched out. "Lord Potter, Lord Longbottom, Master Weasley, Master Weasley," the guard commander said with a polite bow of his head. "We will ensure your prisoner remains safe while she conducts business within the walls of our establishment. You may sheathe your wands."

"Thank you, good warrior," Harry said as he and his friends put their wands away.

With that, two of the goblins gently took Bellatrix by the arms and walked her into the bank. The other guards fell in behind them as Harry and Neville exchanged nods of thanks with Fred and George before following. Once inside the bank, the goblins holding Bellatrix let her go, nodding politely at her. Smiling, she then made her way to the nearest open teller, drawing out her family vault key. "Vault 531, please."

"Right away, Lady Lestrange," Griphook declared with a knowing smile…

* * *

Fifteen minutes later…

"I will say this about the body-sculpting capability of the bioroid factory," the chief director of Gringotts cackled. "It truly creates works of art."

Harry and Neville laughed as Bellatrix blushed furiously at Ragnok's amused leer. The senior director for all goblins in Britain had been waiting for the three visiting human magicals in his office when Griphook had brought them there after Bellatrix retrieved the Cup of Helga Hufflepuff from her family vault. Said cup was now being analyzed by Bill Weasley and his wife Fleur Delacour-Weasley nearby. No one had touched it with bare skin; Bellatrix had handled it with meson-lined dragon-skin gloves due to her new psionic powers. Lying on a stretcher nearby was the end result of the Avalonian add-on to Project V: A beautiful woman appearing to be about twenty or so, with tanned skin and sunflower blonde hair that went to mid-back, possessing the looks of someone of mixed ancestry, currently held in magical stasis. Harry knew that this body for the being that now was trapped inside the Cup of Hufflepuff had been constructed with the same attention for metahuman potential as the replacement bodies for all the Steel Angels; that had been offered to him by the gestation technicians on Europa Station when he went to them sometime in early May to arrange for this body's creation.

"The state of the sentience within the Cup, William?" Ragnok then asked.

Bill sighed. On seeing the eldest son of Arthur and Molly, Bellatrix had been shocked to note that the scars on his left cheek — given to him by Fenrir Greyback during the fight at Hogwarts the night Albus Dumbledore was killed — were nothing more than faded dark lines on his fair skin. On being asked about that, he explained to her that a kind Avalonian healer had traced a small crystal of diamond meson over the scars…which absorbed the magical energy of the lycanthropic curse Greyback had tried to force on him. Though the marks would still be there for a long time to come — which Fleur still liked to have on her husband — he didn't suffer the several after-effects of being hurt by a werewolf these days, such as a lust for raw steaks. "It's alive and sentient, Chief Director," he stated as he gazed on his top boss. "All the life experiences of Voldemort — including the time period his horcruxi were separated from him up to the point of their destruction and the passing of their magical life energy to the Cup — are there. But emotionally, this thing is just like Aunt Bellatrix." He waved to the woman in question. "There would be no guilt or real feeling towards any of Voldemort's past victims, sir." He sighed. "Harry, what do you have in mind here?"

"The Duchy of Kyme Eau," Harry stated.

Silence.

More silence.

Still more silence.

And then…

"Oh, Harry! That's BRILLIANT!" Bill breathed out as Neville and Ragnok grinned.

"I don't understand."

Everyone gazed on a confused Fleur. "Love, the first Duke of Kyme Eau was _**Salazar Slytherin**_!" Bill stated. As Bellatrix gaped in shock at the eldest Weasley son, he added, "For all his faults, Voldemort was ALWAYS confirmed as Slytherin's last true heir through his mother's family. And THAT will — in a sense of the term — become Voldemort's DAUGHTER!" He pointed to the unmoving body nearby in emphasis.

"You're trying to bring back the Houses of the FOUNDERS, Harry?!" Bellatrix demanded.

"In a way, yes," Harry stated. "As Bill just said, for all of Tom's many faults, he WAS Master Salazar's last true heir. Some have said I would be Master Godric's last true heir…but others have said that about Neville here, too." He waved to Neville. "Part of Project V — which was started at Kingsley's direct order after I became Director of the DMLE five years ago — was to locate any true blood or magical heirs to the Founders. You know how people look on the Founders these days, Aunt Bella." At her nod, he added, "We've done this in private with the help of Gringotts…" — he waved to Ragnok, who smiled in return — "…as we didn't want to let the kneazle out of the bag until we chased down all the leads. Unfortunately, the other Founders' blood all died out around the time of the Reformation…although there are the chances of pure-magical heirs out there somewhere. Master Salazar's line was preserved thanks to the family of Tom's mother, Merope Gaunt. Yes, by the time she was born, the line was almost magically powerless due to inbreeding…but it was alive enough to allow the magical link from Master Salazar to be passed to Tom. Thanks to Tom being born of a muggle father, there was fresh blood free of genetic inbreeding to allow his magic to explode to full power. All that is THERE!" He pointed to the Cup. "And now, it will be passed on to Tom's daughter here." He pointed to the unmoving girl nearby.

"But what can a Duke — or in this case, Duchess — of Kyme Eau do?" Fleur asked.

"As the Queen — who also was let in on this — eventually plans for it to happen after a proper period of time to give Tom's daughter the chance to get used to being alive and well after all those years with a split soul and delving so much into dark magic, the Duchess of Kyme Eau will act as her governor general for wizarding Britain. In effect, she will be the _de facto_ head-of-state for the Ministry," Harry explained. "This will take some of the unnecessary ceremonial duties off Kingsley's back so he can concentrate on the day-to-day business of running the Ministry. Since this woman will be the magical heiress of Salazar Slytherin — once we let the 'discovery' of her go public — she'll be accepted by the dark families in the Wizengamot without question."

"She could also forge a link to whichever heir or heiress of the first Magus of Meridiana — the Duke or Duchess of Anglesey as such a person would be known — is out there," Neville added. "That would be the spiritual reconnection between all those who were schooled at Meridiana like your daughter…and us."

"We'd be all under one roof for the first time in three centuries," Harry stated. "Which we will need to be given the chances that very soon, a new British colony on another _**planet**_ may be established once the Seifukusu turn over certain solar systems to us in the near future."

Bellatrix blinked before she nodded. Learning of the story behind her adopted race and what the United Nations — with the full support of the International Conference of Magical Communities — intended to do was just as mind-blowing as awakening on a _**space station**_ far above the surface of the Earth…and in an _**alien clone body**_ to boot! "Fifty points to Gryffindor!" she then joked. As people laughed, she sighed. "Chief Director, I have a question."

"Your daughter?" Ragnok asked.

"How can I make sure she properly inherits my family wealth?"

A grin crossed the elder goblin's face. "As of this time, there is nothing that can be done. The various laws stemming from the Treaty of Ynys Môn that govern any sort of commerce between our institution and anyone who had the fortune to be taught their magic at Meridiana are quite air-tight, I'm afraid to say. As to _why_ this has happened over the years, I really can't say…though I do have some ideas, especially when you factor in the habit of Meridiana-trained mages of seeking out normal people to forge pactio bonds with. I know the Baroness of Ifield and the Countess of Mutuantonis — you know them better as Hermione Granger and Daphne Greengrass — have been instructed by Minister Shacklebolt to find some way to properly remove the restrictions by the time the next Wizengamot meeting occurs on Monday coming up. I suspect they may have something ready to go by that time. Here's what I propose you do in this case…"

* * *

The Leaky Cauldron, a half-hour later…

"My little girl…my little girl…my little girl…"

There wasn't a dry eye in the pub as a sobbing Narcissa Malfoy tightly held her lovely daughter in a hug that was just as motherly as anything Molly Weasley would do for any of her own children. Her daughter-in-law Astoria Malfoy held her beloved son Scorpius — a cute boy of four years of age who looked very much like his father and paternal grandfather, right down to the platinum-blond hair and the grey eyes — in her lap as they watched this tender moment between Narcissa and Raven. Thanks very much to Draco's mortal fear of his own sister — a Meridiana-trained magistra magi who had apprenticed with the Lady Tsukuyomi and had nearly killed their father both in the Battle of the Department of Mysteries and later at the Battle of Hogwarts — he had forced his wife to keep silent about Raven to Draco's mother; Narcissa had not been at Hogwarts when Voldemort had been killed and had not interacted with her son's friends since the downfall of the Death Eaters. That — as Harry had planned — was all depending on there NOT being any accidental meeting between Narcissa and Raven at places such as the Leaky Cauldron. All it had taken was a quick call to Chudleigh in County Devon while Bellatrix was being given her new life to fix that; Raven Malfoy and Ron Weasley had been "friends with benefits" for almost a decade and Draco's sister was an unofficial magical coach for the Chudley Cannons.

And now with several dozen witnesses seeing this "reunion"…

"So you're saying it was the Curse of Hufflepuff that saved her?" Doris Crockford wondered as she gazed wide-eyed at Dedalus Diggle.

"Saved a whole tonne of unborn witches from across Britain Riddle and his mates killed," the former Order of the Phoenix member stated. "Was a cryin' shame that she had to be sent to Meridiana to learn her magic; the Roll Book at Hogwarts couldn't lock onto her 'cause she was an Avalonian." He sipped his tankard of mead. "Pity that Ambassador Holmes' father is dead. I'd buy the man a drink if he ever came to the Cauldron."

"Damn straight about that," Tom Dodderidge stated from behind the bar. "I know lots of people got scared when _Hood_ appeared over London last week…but if Avalonians are like THAT, Merlin bless them all!" He nodded towards the Malfoys and their relatives.

"Pity they can't do a thing about allowing them to bank at Gringotts or inherit seats in the Wizengamot," Hannah Abbott — Tom was her godfather — mused. "Raven would be Draco's successor as head-of-house until Scorpius came of age. Raven's cousin Cassiopeia Lestrange could inherit the Lestrange seat now that her mother's been caught. Charlotte Crabbe could inherit her brother's old seat, too. The Meretrices are also back; the elder sister of that lot is Sally-Anne Perks' soul-mate." As people gasped, the blonde, brown-eyed Hufflepuff alumnus — she was the Baroness of Camden when she didn't tend bar at the Cauldron — sighed. "'Mione and Daphne are looking into ways to see if we can modify the Treaty of Ynys Môn to finally let people like Raven and Cassi become part of our society. Like it was before the Statute of Secrecy went into effect; everyone who was at or who once went to Meridiana all voted for the Separation Act when it was put to a referendum in 1692."

"Bloody hell! Then why cut them off?!" Hannah's best friend Susan Bones — who was also helping at the Cauldron today as it was her day off from work as an auror or attending Wizengamot meetings as the current Baroness of Bute — demanded.

"It was a stupid misconception about how we seek out pactios."

Eyes locked on Raven, who was now allowing a shuddering Narcissa to lean on her shoulder. "I heard that you folks always went out to find muggles to make pactios with," Doris then mused before sipping her tea. "Is that true?"

"Not any normal, Madame Crockford," Raven stated. "We'd always go seek out those who had high magical potential. A squib — as you'd call them here — would work for us as much as a full-blown magical like Ron would. He's my minister magi."

"Really?!" Susan gasped as Narcissa gaped at her daughter.

"Of course!" Raven said with a wink. "When Ron and I became lovers, a pactio automatically formed between us. It was because of that pactio link with Ron that I discovered the curse at the Cannons' stadium which put them at the bottom of the league standings for so long." As people gaped in shock — even if the Chudley Cannons had not won the League Cup for over a century and had become a joke to many quidditch fans across the British Isles, it was seen as VERY bad form to actually CURSE a quidditch team like that — she finished, "Pity the person who put that curse on the stadium never anticipated someone coming along who was trained to use a soulsword to get rid of it."

"Good for you, lass!" an elderly wizard called out from a nearby booth.

Others cheered and applauded Raven as she smiled. "What's going to happen now?!" Doris then asked Hannah. "If Hermione and Daphne are moving to renegotiate the Treaty of Ynys Môn, how soon could Bellatrix's daughter take her seat in the Wizengamot?"

"There's no need to change the Treaty," Raven noted. "All that's really needed is to modify the Ministry Governance Act to remove the clauses concerning the prohibition of non-Hogwarts graduates from serving in the Ministry or dealing with the Ministry."

"That's IT?!" Dedalus gasped.

"That's it! Once that's done, the Treaty of 1779 between the Ministry and Gringotts would allow Cassi, Lotte and Libera Meretrice to claim their family vaults."

"You'll vote for it, won't you?" Tom asked his goddaughter.

"Damn straight I will!" Hannah declared as Susan nodded in agreement.

"But what about Raven's brother?" Doris wondered.

"Don't worry about Draco," Narcissa then coldly stated…

…before the sounds of the portal between the Cauldron and Diagon Alley opening up made people turn as Harry Potter and Neville Longbottom walked in, they escorting a now-chained Bellatrix Lestrange. People instantly fell silent as the two men politely nodded to Raven and her mother before reaching the apparition point to transport Bellatrix to the Ministry. After the Man-Who-Won and his friend had taken the once-rogue hitwitch away, people exchanged looks. "What happened to her?" Doris asked.

"Heard it was something related to what happened to Dora Lupin and Neville's parents," Dedalus noted. "You know about the Earth Angel helping them get back on their feet, don't you?" As people gasped on hearing THAT title, he shrugged. "Guess we'll learn what happened to her when Harry arranges for her trial."

The others all nodded as Narcissa exchanged looks with Raven…

* * *

Level Two of the Headquarters of Her Majesty's Ministry of Magic, two hours later…

"Prisoner Lestrange is secured and just had supper, Director."

"Good. Did you make sure the proper arrangements were made concerning her?"

Elaine Savage nodded. "The department's house elves are going to watch over her until she goes to her trial," the Chief Auror affirmed with a smile. "Anyone who tries to get in there to get at her is going to be in for a very rude shock."

"Good," the Director of the DMLE stated as he scanned the notes on his desk. "I'm sure Kingsley would authorize a trial tomorrow given who we're talking about here. The sooner it's finally done, the better for all of us."

"Azkaban?" Elaine asked.

Harry gave her a knowing look. Seeing that, the older woman nodded in understanding; even if she could speculate on what would happen to a certain prisoner, she knew she could not speak of it in public. "I'll instruct Justin to ask for banishment for one hundred years from Britain," he said. The office's anti-animagus wards were up to stop Rita Skeeter from getting in to spy on what was going on; Harry had sensed the _Prophet_ reporter buzzing around Level Two when he and Neville had brought Bellatrix in.

"Where will she go?"

He gazed at her. "You're from a 'dark' family, Elaine. If you faced banishment from Britain, where would you want to go?" he then asked.

She considered that for a moment, and then she gaped. "Merlin! HER?!"

"You'll understand why I'm asking for that at the trial." He then perked. "Oh, by the way, get this over to Xīshèn, would you? I need that sent off to Mahora ASAP."

He handed her an envelope with the DMLE badge in one corner. Elaine took it…and then nearly turned stark-white on seeing the name written there. "Harry…"

"She's needed for testimony," he said with a wink.

The Chief Auror gaped at him, and then she laughed. "You don't do things by half, do you, Harry?!" she demanded as she slipped the envelope into her robes.

"If it's not worth doing all the way, it's not worth doing at all."

"True!"

* * *

The Atrium on Level Eight of the Headquarters of Her Majesty's Ministry of Magic, Wednesday 14 July, after breakfast…

"'Morning, Miss 'Mione! What brings you about this part?"

Hermione grinned as she allowed the senior watchwizard of the Atrium, an aged veteran of Grindelwald's War named Eric Munch, to take her hand and kiss it. "Waiting for a special witness to Bella Lestrange's trial, Elder Eric," she replied, making him blush on calling him by such a title of respect. "You know Harry when it comes to…"

A ringing noise then echoed through the Atrium as a column of light allowed a woman in a beautiful black man's kimono with the _mondokoro_ of the Moroboshi Clan on her tunic to appear. After the materialiser effect faded, Eric moved to intercept her. "Welcome to Her Majesty's Ministry of Magic, good visitor," he began…before his own magical senses — which were still quite sharp even if he was a peer of Octavius Ollivander — detected the awesome levels of life energy emitting from this person. "Lady Negako…?"

The grandmaster of Saikō Jinseijutsu-ryū gazed on him for a moment before her eyebrow arched in surprise. "Eric," she then stated as she relaxed herself. "You look well."

"You two know each other?!" Hermione gasped, her hand flying to her mouth.

"Eric here — as he was a veteran of the Battle of Nurmengard — was a part of a team from the United Kingdom who went to Japan after the cessation of World War Two to attempt to convince Tsukiko to admit to war crimes against the colonial ministries she helped topple during the conflict," Negako explained as Eric took off his bowler hat and bowed politely to the Earth Angel. "Unlike others of Albus' group sent there at the time, Eric showed considerable flexibility of thought when it came to understanding Tsukiko's ultimate purpose and how many people she had saved from such repressive policies." She gazed on Eric. "I assume that is the reason you are still rated only as a watchwizard."

He nodded. "Yes, ma'am. Say one damned thing about how many people the Lady Tsukuyomi saved…and the damned stalebloods here thought I was a Grindelwald supporter!" A shake of the head as he moved to his desk to prepare Negako's visitor's pass.

"Which is understandable," Hermione stated. "Grindelwald was competition to the stalebloods here in Britain at the time. Add that to what Tsukiko-sensei did…"

She and Eric shared a chuckle. "Purpose for being here, Lady Negako?" he then asked.

"Testimonial witness for the trial of Bellatrix Lestrange, as requested by Harold Potter," Negako stated as Eric prepared her pass.

"Right-oh, ma'am. Here you go."

Negako took the badge and placed it on her tunic's right collar. Hermione then nodded thanks as she escorted the ninjutsu grandmaster towards the lifts to the other levels. Looking around, Negako hummed. "You destroyed the Fountain of Magical Brethren."

"It was transformed into a 'Magic is Might' monument when Rufus Scrimgeour was killed after Professor Dumbledore died in 1997, which allowed the Death Eaters to seize the Ministry and try to kill all the normal-borns," Hermione explained. "Most hideous thing I ever saw when Harry and I came here to destroy it a few days later at the Queen's command."

Negako gazed on what now served as a replacement for the Fountain of Magical Brethren: A beautiful series of statues surrounding a large fountain, the beings guarding it from all sides composed of several types of sentients native to Europe. They included at the north and south points a witch and wizard in traditional combat robes with wands drawn for battle. At the east and west points were a man and woman in British Army combat uniforms with L85A1 rifles in hand and at the ready; no doubt, Negako mused, they symbolized squibs who served the Crown. Between the four magical humans depicted here were a goblin in full battle armour, two house elves in formal serving robes with hands raised to defend their master and mistress, a centaur rearing up on his hind legs with a drawn bow, a female werewolf in semi-humanoid form bearing wands with fangs and claws splayed, a male vampire with fangs showing and clawed hands raised to physically attack anyone that came at him, a mermaid rising from the waters of the fountain with a war trident in hand, a manticore, an acromantula, a troll with war club, a veela projecting flames from her hands…and a beautiful woman in a martial art gi-like uniform standing between the witch and the female squib, a pair of Lawgiver pistols in her hands.

"Recent addition," Negako noted, pointing.

"I put that in when I got the message about Her Majesty's Proclamation concerning the Avalonians back in April," Hermione said as she blushed on sensing the approval in Negako's voice concerning the newest part of the Fountain of All Equals.

"How did Thomas Riddle's allies react to it?"

"They hated it…especially after Harry enchanted the rifles the two non-magical magic-borns here have to shoot anyone who tried to destroy it," the normal-born witch answered. "And there is _this_ as well," she said as she pointed to the tall obelisk in the middle of the Fountain, which was emblazoned on all sides with the same phrase:

_**La Reine Le Veult**_

Negako's eyebrow arched as she gave Hermione a look of approval at that addition to the Fountain. "'The Queen Wills It,'" she read the Norman phrase in English.

"The one phrase whose power NO magical in Britain can deny," Hermione stated. "After we finished building the statue, we hid ourselves under Harry's invisibility cloak when Mister Thicknesse…" — she refused to think of that man as a proper Minister of Magic due to his very short term in office in 1997 and because he had been under the Imperius Curse while in office — "…and his aides discovered what happened." She giggled. "When the aurors tried to destroy the statue, they couldn't summon their magic to start blasting away. You should have heard all the cussing and swearing…"

"It is fortunate for them that they did not succeed. If they did…"

"They would forever lose their magic," Hermione finished.

"Indeed. In the meantime, I believe there is a trial we must attend."

The normal-born nodded as she beckoned the ninjutsu grandmaster to the lifts…

* * *

Courtroom Ten on Level Ten, twenty minutes later…

"Lady Malfoy, may I ask what you're doing here?"

Narcissa Malfoy rose from her family chair. "Forgive me, Lord Chief Warlock, but my son developed a very serious case of spattergroit last night," she said as she bowed her head to Blaise Zabini. "As my son arranged when he took the family seat, I am to stand in his place whenever he is ill and cannot perform his duties in this House."

Blaise nodded. "I pray your son recovers as soon as possible, Lady Malfoy."

She nodded. "You are too kind, Lord Chief Warlock."

With that, Narcissa sat down. "Before I turn things over to Director Potter in his place as Chief Interrogator for the trial of the Dowager Lady Lestrange, I would like to acknowledge the presence of the Earth Angel, the Lady Moroboshi Negako of the Moroboshi Clan of the Imperial Province of Mutsu of Japan, now seated beside Lord Parkinson." As people in the crowd gasped in shock as eyes locked on the woman in black sitting beside Pansy's brother Michael, Negako nodded her head in acknowledgement. "And before people ask, her family is traditionally rated in Japan as the equal of a Noble and Most Ancient House here in Britain…and she is the personal servant and bodyguard of His Imperial Majesty, the Heavenly Sovereign of Japan. I'm sure those of us who have friends in Japan are aware of the oaths they must take in service of His Imperial Majesty."

As many people nodded with some applauding, Blaise then turned to nod to Harry, who was properly robed in black with a hat to mark his current position as trial interrogator. As the Chief Warlock moved to take his family seat in the audience, the Man-Who-Won smiled. "I hereby declare this trial of the Crown versus the Dowager Lady Bellatrix Hester Lestrange of Barnet now open. March in the accused!" he said after taking his seat.

The main doors opened to allowed a woman in formal robes to walk inside, her hands manacled. Two aurors escorted Bellatrix inside. On seeing the infamous witch, all the people there gaped in shock on noting the subdued look on her face; her words and attitudes at her initial trial before the Wizengamot in 1981 after being caught in the wake of the attack on the Longbottoms — and her vow to remain loyal to Voldemort despite facing a life sentence in Azkaban — were known to all. She didn't resist as the two aurors helped her into the defendant's chair, and then locked her restraints in place. Once that was done, the aurors withdrew to one side. "Do you wish counsel, Dowager Lady Lestrange?" Harry asked.

"No, My Lord," Bellatrix stated, shocking the audience more with the quiet tone of her voice. "I will defend myself before this court."

"So be it then. Chief Accuser, please read the charges."

"As you wish, My Lord," Justin Finch-Fletchley said with a bow of his head. He stood off to Harry's right side. The normal-born Hufflepuff, whose parents owned a hotel chain based in Lincolnshire — and whose mother was descent from the Loyal House of Dorchester, who had been wealthy magical merchants before the line descended into squibs decades ago, thus forcing their vault at Gringotts to be sealed until Justin himself was allowed to claim it in 1997 — then turned to gaze on the accused. "Dowager Lady Lestrange, the Crown accuses you of the following charges: Treason Against the Crown; Multiple counts of murder in the first degree and second degree; Multiple counts of use of the Unforgivable Curses in all three categories; Conspiracy to overthrow the legal government of the land; Escape from lifetime incarceration at Her Majesty's Prison Azkaban; and membership in an outlawed terrorist organization. All charges that I have stated to this court concern all your activities between Sunday the fourteenth of January in the year 1996 when you fled Azkaban…and Thursday the twenty-eighth of August in the year 1997, when you were incapacitated at the Battle of Hogwarts by Matriarch Molly Weasley of Ottery Saint Catchpole and Magistra Magi Grace Longbottom of Holdenhurst…"

"Objection!" a voice called out.

"State your objection, Lord Nott," Harry bade.

Theodore Nott rose from his chair. "Why is it that a known graduate of the Meridiana Magic Academy is credited for the capture of the Dowager Lady Lestrange?!" the current Viscount of Torridge — and a known member of Draco Malfoy's group of friends in the Wizengamot — demanded. "All the laws we have forbid any dealings with those…"

"Objection overruled!" Harry sternly cut him off as his eyes flared with magic, making many in the crowd wince and Theodore pale as those green orbs locked on him. "The particular law you are referencing forbids any graduate from Meridiana from formally doing any sort of business with the Ministry of Magic and those institutions allied to the Ministry within the United Kingdom. At the time the Battle of Hogwarts happened, all protections given to the rebel ministry under Master Pius Thicknesse had been temporarily stripped by Her Majesty the Queen in her Magical Royal Proclamation declaring a state of rebellion against the Crown by the rebel ministry…and by unanimous declaration of the International Conference of Magical Communities concerning the state of affairs in the United Kingdom at that time. Magistra Magi Longbottom had every right in the world to be there and ensure her brother and grandmother would survive putting down the Death Eaters; that is why the official record of the battle has her name — and the names of all the other combatants from Meridiana who were there that day — imprinted on the record scroll." The Man-Who-Won's eyes then narrowed. "Be warned, Lord Nott: If you waste any more of the court's time in mindless filibustering, I will you find you in contempt. Sit down!" As Theodore scrambled for his chair and many of the audience snickered in delight on seeing him publicly smacked down like that, Harry gazed on Justin. "Continue, Chief Accuser."

"As you wish, My Lord," Justin stated with a smile before gazing again at Bellatrix. "As you were incapacitated by Matriarch Weasley and Magistra Magi Longbottom in 1997, your recent flight from the permanent spell-damage ward at St. Mungo's will not be counted against you, Dowager Lady Lestrange. Furthermore, your willingness to protect a Founder's Artifact in your family vault at the Diagon Alley branch of the International Mercantile Bank of Gringotts — specifically, the Cup of Helga Hufflepuff — after it was given to you for safekeeping by the late Magister Maximus Thomas Riddle, also known as 'Lord Voldemort,' will weigh into the Crown's desire for punishment if you are found guilty of the crimes I have listed before." As people gasped on hearing that — the dark-aligned members of the Wizengamot were stunned on hearing the "mudblood" refer to the late Dark Lord by _that_ particular title — Justin then smiled. "Finally, there is the mitigating circumstances of you suffering three cases of soulsword backlash thanks to the Lady Moroboshi Negako's use of that weapon to free three victims — specifically your niece, Retired Auror Sergeant Mistress Nymphadora Arethusa Tonks-Lupin of the Corps of Law Aurors; Retired Senior Investigative Auror Lord Franklin Raymond Longbottom of the Corps of Law Aurors; and his wife, Retired Senior Investigative Auror Lady Alice Mary Lucas-Longbottom of the Corps of Law Aurors — from a family curse you used on them in 1997 and 1981 respectively. This forced the Lady Healer Ellen Bonham, an Avalonian-Briton second-rank healer working at Ashford Hospital in the County of Surrey — per her healer's oaths — to have you undergo a body-swap and become a Terran-turned-Avalonian due to the horrendous damage done to your body over the years." As people gaped in disbelief on hearing that — any noise was silenced by a stern look from Harry at the audience — Justin gazed on his old schoolmate. "My Lord, the Crown will desire — if the accused is found guilty of the charges I have stated just now — to request banishment from Her Majesty's Realm for no more than one hundred years…or until such time as Her Majesty grants Her Mercy to the accused."

"So be it, Chief Accuser," Harry stated. "Dowager Lady Lestrange, your plea?"

"Guilty of all charges, but with mitigating circumstances, My Lord," Bellatrix stated with a calm voice, that making the audience stare in shock at her. "This is partially because of what the Chief Accuser stated just now."

"So entered. Chief Accuser, do you wish to call witnesses?"

"By your leave, My Lord, the Crown requests the testimony of the Lady Moroboshi Negako of the Clan Moroboshi of the Japanese Imperial Province of Mutsu."

"You may proceed…"

* * *

The Atrium, two hours later…

"Dowager Lady Lestrange! A statement, please!"

Bellatrix — now being escorted by Negako from the lifts after the end of the trial, which had concluded with a unanimous vote of banishment for fifty years from British soil unless granted pardon by the Crown — paused on hearing that, and then she smiled. She had been heading over to the security desk so she could be beamed out of the Ministry and into her life in exile from Britain. "Rita!" she called out as she gave Rita Skeeter a wave and grin. "Still trying to get the juicy stories?!"

"Indeed I am, Trixie," Rita — she and Bellatrix were year-mates — said with a wink and a smile in return. "First of all, how do you feel about the judgement of banishment?"

"It's just," Bellatrix stated in return. "When I woke up in St. Mungo's early Saturday morning after the Lady Negako used the soulsword to break the curse I used on both Frank and Alice Longbottom, I…" She shrugged. "I fled from the hospital, of course. Tried to get into my family home, but my daughter warded it pretty good, so I couldn't get in. I stayed in Knockturn — at least, I THINK I stayed in Knockturn! — until I remembered my old bedroom at Grimmauld Place yesterday. I apparated there, which is where my grandnephew Ted found me. He got me to Healer Bonham and I was taken to Europa Station to have my body-swap done because she judged the damage to my body was too great to allow me to live any sort of healthy life as I was. After that, Harry and Neville came up to take me to Gringotts so I could retrieve Hufflepuff's Cup. Along the way, copies of my memories from my escape from Azkaban to when Molly and Grace knocked me down a year later were taken so that there are official records as to how many people I killed."

Rita blinked. "You have no feelings at all…?"

"No," the other woman announced with a shake of the head. "Does it give my niece — and by extension, my grandnephew — any justice? Does it give Neville and his family any justice? Does it grant anyone their justice?" She shook her head. "I can't say. I know what I did was wrong…but the emotional content is missing. I know I can't make myself do that sort of thing at this time. As to the future, I can't predict; I'm not Cassandra Trelawney." As Rita laughed, Bellatrix shrugged. "I'm going now to Japan. Mistress Evangeline McDowell of Port Rois has agreed to take me on as her apprentice and keep watch over me while I try to make a new life for myself."

Rita gaped. "_**Evangeline McDowell?!**_" She leaned up. "Do they know?" she hissed.

"Harry personally asked her to take me on," Bellatrix answered.

The star reporter of the _Daily Prophet_ gaped as an Illuminating Charm began to flash **PAGE 1 STORY!** deep in her mind. "_Harry Potter_ actually asked one of the darkest magic users in all history to become your new _**mistress**_?!" she demanded.

"Tsukiko will be monitoring the situation, Rita," Negako then stated, the chill in her voice making Rita pale as she gazed upon Bellatrix's escort. "At Harold's request."

Rita blinked in shock, and then she looked at her old schoolmate. Bellatrix shrugged. "I rather expected Harry to do that, Rita." A smile. "You take care! Come around Mahora when you get the chance, huh?" And with that, Negako walked her away.

Rita watched her go, and then shook her head. "Damn…!"

"What the hell is Potter up to?" her cameraman wondered.

She sighed. "I don't know…but sooner or later, I'll find out."

And with that, both headed off…

* * *

The Isle of Lundy in the Bristol Channel (90 kilometres west-southwest of Cardiff in Wales), after sunset…

"I wish I could have given you something else."

The pale man seated in the living room of the Nott mansion located at the northern end of the island lying nineteen kilometres off the northern coast of County Devon smiled as he enjoyed the goblet of blood that had been given to him by his host. "Do not apologize, Theodore," the ancient vampire stated. "Yes, it was unfortunate that the Lady Lestrange was transformed into a crystal-blood and whisked away to Japan to be taught by Evangeline. But it is a small setback in the grander scheme of things."

"There are still other Death Eaters available, you know," Theodore Nott mused.

"Including your father," his visitor warned.

The Viscount of Torridge waved it off. "He was a fool and bowed to a lying half-blood bastard child that pretended to be something he wasn't," he stated. "In doing so, he nearly destroyed my family along the way. As far as I'm concerned, Mason Nott is dead and no longer seen as part of the family." He smirked. "A present to your cause."

"You are too kind, my young friend," the vampire said as he finished the offered blood. "There is one other thing that we have sensed."

"Being?"

"Voldemort himself."

Theodore gaped. "Impossible! Potter ripped him apart in '97!"

"He made horcruxi." A smirk. "It could possibly explain why Mrs. Lestrange got off so easily."

The young lord gaped. "_Horcruxi_…?" A wry chuckle then escaped him. "Idiot…!"

"So all we have to do is find what happened to the Cup of Hufflepuff."

His host nodded. "It could be done." Theodore then gazed on his visitor. "Why are you so adamant about driving those aliens off the planet?"

"With them capable of interbreeding with normal humans?" the vampire asked. "Why do you think we call them 'crystal-bloods,' Theodore? The mesonium in their regenerative enzymes — the very same material that was injected into the body of the Rail-Splitter by Josef von Taserich to save him in 1865, thus unleashing the 'Score and Four' that nearly destroyed every vampire in North America at the time — will spread to every human on the planet. Your kind would not wish to deal with a sea of metahumans, do you not…just as my kind can't survive without blood that's not touched by mesonium!"

His blood-red eyes narrowed. "You've heard of the Yizibajohei, have you not?"

Theodore shuddered. "A _metahuman revolution_…"

"It's best stopped before it gets started," his guest warned…

* * *

The Leaky Cauldron, that moment…

Hannah Abbott took a deep breath. "I'm tired…"

"Well, if you want to head to bed…" Tom Dodderidge mused…

…and then he tensed on sensing a powerful aura come towards the entrance to the Cauldron from Charing Cross Road. "Merlin…!" he breathed out.

Hannah gazed on her godfather. "What…?"

She then blinked as a man dressed in funeral black stepped through the main doors. Tall and gangly, he wore an ascot cap over a head of wavy dark hair that was partially combed over his rather large ears. Gazing at the youthful face, Hannah was quick to see that the man's head was canted in such a way to compensate for his left eye, which wasn't exactly focused on the same place his right one was. He was clean-shaven…which made Hannah wonder if he shouldn't have a beard covering his cheeks and chin.

Wait…

A _beard_…?!

Hannah then blinked as the stranger's hazel eyes focused on her before a smile crossed his face. "My heavens," he then declared with a noticeable American Midwest twang. "I haven't seen you since you were but a child, Miss Abbott." He then smiled at Tom, who was coming up to take his hand. "Please, Tom…my usual room if it's available."

The old barkeep nodded, a grin splitting his face. "Right away, Mister Lincoln!"

_**The End…For Now!**_

* * *

**WRITER'S POSTSCRIPT**

_Another plot bunny that expands on what happened once Dora Lupin got her magic back and how it could have affected the person that nearly killed her years before. This also gave me a chance to look back on the point of divergence for this universe when it came to the fate of Harry Potter once Yomigawa Tsukiko took interest in him at the end of his fifth year. More will come…especially with a certain vampire hunter now in country!_

* * *

**WRITER'S NOTES**

1) Translations: **Mei'na** — One's soul, all that is not of the physical body; **Examinamus** — A term derived from the Latin _exāminō_ ("I examine"); **Reportata** — A term derived from the Latin _reportātus_ ("report"); **I'sagh** — Healer/Doctor; **Thoughtmaster/Thoughtmistress** — The Sagussan/Avalonian title for a teacher (adding **-prime** to this term indicates a senior teacher, principal or headmaster/headmistress), which is used very much in the same manner as the Japanese use the word _sensei_; **In Loco Parentis** — Literally "In the place of a parent," this is the legal term used to indicate the legal responsibility of a person or organization (like a boarding school) who takes charge of a child when the parents cannot act as such for whatever reason; **Mondokoro** — Japanese term for a family crest.

2) The **Spirit-Breaker Fire-Light** (in Japanese, **Seishin-Hasai Hi-Kōsen**) attack is a projectile energy version of a soulsword that can only be used in situations such as destroying any possession or curse links between a target and whatever said target is in contact with. Unlike the soulsword, this particular attack cannot kill a living corporeal being.

3) In _Negima_, those who practice Meridiana-type magic are classified in several ways. Those who are seen as masters in their particular magical forms are addressed with the Latin terms **Magister Magi** (for men like **Negi Springfield**) or **Magistra Magi** (for women like **Evangeline McDowell**); the terms translate as "Master of Magic" and "Mistress of Magic" respectively. Whenever someone like **Miyazaki Nodoka** (to Negi), **Karakuri Chachamaru** (to Evangeline) or **Ronald Weasley** (to Raven Malfoy) forms a **pactio** ("contract") bond with a Magister/Magistra Magi, they are then designated as **Minister Magi** (for men like Ron) or **Ministra Magi** (for women like Nodoka and Chachamaru); these terms both translate as "Servant of Magic."

In this part, I introduce a third term, which Tsukiko uses when she speaks to Percy Weasley in the fourth flashback scene: **Discipulus Magi** (for men) and **Discipula Magi** (for women). Both terms mean "Student of Magic" and would indicate people who have not yet achieved their mastery in a specific magical discipline.

4) For those who don't know, the name **Knights of Walpurgis** was the working name JKR devised for Voldemort's followers. This stems from the concept of the **Night of Walpurgis** (known in German as _Walpurgisnacht_), which is a traditional spring festival usually held on 30 April or 1 May in communities across central and northern Europe.

5) The names of the magical lordships mentioned here:

**The Duchy of Kyme Eau** (originally Salazar Slytherin) — This is another name for the **River Slea**, which is a tributary of the River Witham in County Lincolnshire. The part of the Slea from Ferry Farm to the north of the village of **South Kyme** twenty kilometres southeast of Lincoln itself is often called **Kyme Eau** ("Kyme Water" in French).

**The Duchy of Anglesea** (originally Mawr Bryn) — This is the English name for the island that forms the northwest corner of Wales, separated from the mainland by the **Menai Strait** that is fed by the tidal waters of the Irish Sea. In Welsh, Anglesea is known as **Ynys Môn** ("Isle of Môn").

**The Barony of Camden** (Hannah Abbott) — This is the name of one of the central boroughs of London, located on the north side of the River Thames just north of Regent's Park and west of Islington, four kilometres northwest of the City of London itself.

**The Barony of Bute** (Susan Bones) — This is the name of an island located in western Scotland, sitting on the north shore of the lower Firth of Clyde forty kilometres west of Glasgow. In Scots Gaelic, this island is known as **Eilean Bhòid**.

**The Viscountcy of Torridge** (Theodore Nott) — This is the name of the **River Torridge**, which flows through the northern part of County Devon into Bideford Bay, which is an arm of the Bristol Channel separating southwest England from Wales.

6) The term **Battle of Nurmengard** is the term I use to indicate the final battle between Albus Dumbledore and Gellert Grindelwald. In the universe of this story, that battle would have occurred on Thursday 21 June 1945 (the summer solstice); it was this battle that effectively ended "Grindelwald's War" (the magical side of the European part of World War Two) once and for all. Nurmengard — whose actual location was never revealed in the _Harry Potter_ books save for it being "somewhere in Europe" — is located near the German city of **Münster** in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia about a hundred kilometres north-northeast of Cologne and 180 kilometres southwest of Hamburg. I chose this location for Nurmengard because Münster's old Roman name was **Monasterium** (from the Greek term _monastērion_, meaning "monastery"). Given Nurmengard's isolation because of its creator and later most famous prisoner, such a connection seemed fitting to me.

As well as being called the Battle of Nurmengard, the final fight between Albus and his would-be lover is also known as **The Battle of the Gates**; in the mixed _Harry Potter_/_Negima_ world of this story, Nurmengard village was also the site of a **world gate** between Earth and Nerio. In his rise to power, Grindelwald made an alliance with the **Mage of the Beginning** (who first appeared at the end of the _Negima_ manga story "Episode #1: Rakan's Journey, Continued Further…" [manga episode #232]), the supposed creator of the _Mundus Magicus_. Involved in this battle were magical and metahuman warriors from both Earth and Nerio, including the **War Hawks** (described in the notes of the first _W&A_ story) as well as various immortals from the _Highlander_ universe; it was the self-sacrifice of one of those immortals' Quickening that ensured that the world gate at Nurmengard would be destroyed to prevent the Life-Maker from launching a magical invasion of Earth from Nerio.

7) As the phrase **La Reine Le Veult** (when a King is the head-of-state in the British Commonwealth, the phrase is **Le Roi Le Veult**) is the normal phrase used in the British government to indicate Royal Assent to a piece of legislation (outside spending bills), I decided to borrow the phrase to use this as the magical enforcement trigger-phrase for a Magical Royal Proclamation when I created the _Icemaidens_ universe. All wizards and witches who hear this phrase are magically bound to obey what the Proclamation says.

8) It should be noted that the exact birthdays of Bellatrix Lestrange and Rita Skeeter have never been revealed. Thus, it is possible that they may not have been year-mates while they were attending Hogwarts.

9) The **Yizibajohei** (known to almost all throughout local space around Earth as "**They Who Must Never Be Named**" or the "**You Know Whos**") are a race of metahumans living on a planet close to Elle (first noted in the first _Urusei Yatsura_ movie _Only You_). They are based on the Levramites from Jim Valentino's parody comic series _normalman_ from the 1980s. They have appeared in various episodes of the Anime Add-venture, usually in _The Doctor Is In_ storyline. I also made use of them in _The Saga of Coyote and the Tempest_ and _Manacled Dominatrix_. Of course, their nicknames are derived from the nicknames often applied to Voldemort in the _Harry Potter_ novels; their home planet, **Yiziba**, is always referred to as "**You Know Where**" or "**The Unspeakable Place**."


End file.
